"Maybe just... give me a second." Ellie's never had any weird powers, just a lot of determination.

While she's never prayed, Ellie regularly talks to dead people like they can hear her. Even though they technically can't, it makes her feel less lonely.

So it's sort of the same idea here, right? Expecting the wilderness to hear her, because she's the one who - supposedly - is making it work.

"Expecting doesn't feel right." If Joel were there, he might understand that - you can't expect life to go your way, because that's not how it works. She didn't expect Joel to get better, she made it happen. She doesn't feel like life owes her anything, she just carves her existence out of it.

This stuff owes her nothing - it can't think like that - but Ellie has the power to make it obey her... theoretically.

"Get out of there. A book is the most fucking useless place for you to grow. You're gonna run out of food and water soon and there won't be anywhere else for you to go. Find a nice log or something."

Ellie doesn't even know if that's true, about books being a bad place to grow. Beyond that, she feels stupid, talking to the book.

But the mold starts receeding.

Ellie look a up at Zelda, not as triumphant as grimly determined.

"I think I got it. Are there more corners beyond this one that are fucked up?"