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Your grandma hesitates before opening her mouth.

"I—I think so, Huknock. At least, I thought so. I didn't realize…I thought it would be safe to try, but…"

Your grandma takes a deep breath. Before you can say anything else, she looks at you and slowly shakes her head.

"It's okay, Huknock. We always knew there was a chance we would fail. And—well—I think all that matters for now is that you're okay. I honestly had no idea that this kind of thing could happen if the program malfunctioned, and frankly, if I had, then I wouldn't have taken the chance of going through with it. It's bad enough the computers near caught fire, but—it was all so strange, I just—I don't know what it was. Are you sure you're all right, Huknock?"

Swallowing heavily, you give your grandma a nod. There's something nagging at the back of your mind, as if you had just remembered something that's now slipped away—but whatever it is, you just can't bring it to mind.

Your grandma watches you closely for a moment and then rests a hand gently on your shoulder.

"I think you should go home now, Huknock. Don't worry about any of this; I'll clean it all up, and as soon as I can, I'll come back to Silvertree as well. It might take a little while—a few days, maybe a week—but I know you'll be just fine. Once I'm home, we can talk more about everything, and…what we can do from there. And as for our magic—I think all we can do for the time being is wait and see if anything changes. Either because of the developments, or…"

She glances at the line of dead monitors.

"If anything does happen as a result of this plan, Huknock—I want you to know that I would never blame you for it," she tells you, a slight rasp in her voice. "It was my plan, my program. It was me who should have been sure of the outcomes, every possible consequence, good or bad, before I ever suggested we try this at all. Whatever happens is on my shoulders. But whether anything happens or not—we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, you should go home and carry on exactly as you normally would. Look after yourself, and carry on."

She strokes your shoulder very lightly with her thumb—and then with that, she stands up and, without delay, begins pulling out boxes and piling loose wires and cables into them.

Over her head, the light flickers once—and falls still again after a moment.

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