This chapter's epigraph comes from a conversation between Mary and the bug. Mary tells the bug that she's going to take off the bumps on the mountain behind her, so that she can get into the illusion. The bug doesn't want to hear this, so he tells Mary to leave the magic in the outside world so that he can cast a regular spell. Mary says that's a good idea, but the bug points out that this isn't the only way to break an illusion: to defend against an imaginary enemy and then attack the illusion itself. This is how Mary broke the illusion she was trying to break: she had to keep the magic going so that the enemy couldn't attack it. Mary is sorry that she didn't tell the bug how to break the illusion, but she says that the world is full of people who don't know how to do this kind of thing, so she'll do her best.