Harrow actually just being a scared teenager who lost her only friend…
When you start HtN, Harrow’s mysterious plan seems so intricate and elaborate - 22 letters, and all those guidelines and rules -the favor of the chain, the sewn tongue.
But then when you get to the end, the whole thing boils down to just…
Step 1. Hit Pause on the Absorption Process
Steps 2a-2v Hide the Remote and kill anyone who approaches the hiding spot so no one can ever accidentally hit play.
And that’s fucking it.
There’s no Step 3 where she works out a way to remove Gideon and see/free her. And I mean, there’s not even an instruction to come up with some kind of step 3 eventually. She knows her life will be myriads, but can’t even imagine anything beyond “don’t absorb her” should even exist.
Abigail & Magnus are spot on when they say she made herself a Mausoleum.
Because in spite of her aptitude and scholarship and obsessive paranoia, she’s actually just a traumatized, grief-stricken teenager. Her plan was impulsive and emotional. She saw the looming threat of Griddle’s soul being destroyed, and the pain that would crush her when the shock wore off, so she slammed the brakes and ran off.