A/N: Grey begins to realize that maybe there's more to this then she first realized... Oh, and "biffa" means "big, butch girl". I saw it on some slang site and absolutely HAD to use it.


Chapter 8


"That's Roundworld?" Grey asked, peering at the gently rotating glass globe. "Looks an awful lot like itself, actually."

"It's SUPPOSED to," Rincewind said.

A few minutes ago he was happily sitting around being bored out of his mind until the Archchancellor burst in with this... this... GIRL in tow, demanding to see the Roundworld.

And there it was. Roundworld.

"Is it supposed to make funny noises?" Grey asked.

Rincewind looked alarmed. "No?" he squeaked.

Grey looked relieved. "That's good, because it isn't."

If looks could kill...

"So, anyway," she said, turning back to the Archchancellor, "that's where I need to get back to."

"By magic?" Ridcully inquired.

"Can you think of another way?" Grey asked.

Rincewind stared at the girl. She hadn't said that sarcastically. She had almost sounded... desperate. Like she didn't want to use magic.

"No," said Ridcully. He grinned and rubbed his big hands together. "You ready?"

Grey smiled back at him, her eyes nervous. "Um," she said.

"Oh, come ON, Grey," Roberta said, giggling a little. "You're a biffa, you can handle it." Theodora whacked her.

"Yes, then," Grey said. "It's all right." She paused. "What, NOW?"

"No time like the present!" Ridcully hollered. He slapped Rincewind on the back, nearly knocking him over. "Quick, get me three blue candles, a box of occult chalk, some fresh, raw chicken and four plates of garden salad."

Rincewind stared at him.

"The ladies are probably hungry," Ridcully said, as if that explained everything.

"Oh, of COURSE," Rincewind spat, glowering as he slouched out the door.

And so they waited for Rincewind to find the kitchen, get whacked by Mrs. Whitlow, make off with the salads and the chicken, limp to the storeroom, try to get the occult chalk off the top shelf, have several pounds of occult items tumble down and hit him over the head, and then somehow make it back to his office.

"You're back!" Theodora cried, draping herself on him. Rincewind turned red and tried to banish all potatoe-y thoughts from his mind.



**Two Flash-Floods, Four Occult Circles, and Thirty-Five Garden Salads Later...**



"So now you get into the circle," Ridcully said.

"I'm IN the circle," Grey said. "You drew it around me."

("It's TORTURE getting chalk out of wood," Rincewind muttered.)

"Right," the Archchancellor said, and coughed. "Rincewind, light the candles! Dean, prepare the chicken!"

"What, like marinate it?"

"Shut up and give me the bloody chicken."

("I don't see why we couldn't have just gone outside.")

Ridcully waved his hands mystically over the drippy chicken, muttering oblong words that shone in the air. ("I mean, it's MY bloody office.") Light flashed, rafters dripped, and there was a general magical hubbub that pretty much scared the socks off of everyone in the room, except for the four Seamstresses and Grey, since they were wearing stockings.



Later, Wilhelmina said that she had never seen anyone stretch out like that before. It was like the girl in the circle was made out of rubber, and someone had grabbed her head and pulled UP, then let go suddenly so that she snapped back...

And then she disappeared.



In a black country on the edge of the universe, Death looked up.

HMMM, he said.