When Rincewind came into his room he found a luggage sitting at the end of his bed. There was nothing unusual about it for the most part, except that it wasn't his, which meant…

… he was free! Free of the god forsaken luggage, because once you were given a new luggage you certainly couldn't be trifled with the old one. Rincewind was much happier than he had been in a long time, which should have made him weary, and it almost did. But at the last second Rincewind decided to open the luggage anyway.

So he did. Rincewind walked right over and lifted the lid. But he shouldn't have. He should have known better.

There wasn't much inside the box, except for a ton of plushy red material, and some sort of small golden token. Rincewind examined it more closely. It was in fact a ring. He became immediately eager to get his hands on it. But something made him stop.

The air had turned suddenly cold.

"HELLO RINCEWIND," said Death. Rincewind didn't say anything, but began to cough rather nervously.

"COMING DOWN WITH SOMETHING? IT IS COLD SEASON, YOU KNOW."

Rincewind shuffled his feet. His gaze shifted slowly away from Death and fell on the ring.

"IF YOU TOUCH IT YOU WILL PROBABLY DIE," said Death informatively.

"Really?" said Rincewind. "How?" Afterward he realized that the how and why of death were not really that important. What was important was making sure that one avoided it whenever possible.

"I'M NOT REALLY ALLOWED TO GRANT YOU THE SPECIFICS. BUT SUFFICE IT TO SAY… THERE IS A SAFE-GUARD."

"Oh," said Rincewind, not taking his eyes off the ring.

"IT DOES HAVE A SORT OF MAGNETIC-ATTRACTION, DOESN'T IT?" said Death in conversational tones.

"Yes," said Rincewind, who did not enjoy conversing with Death.

"I ASSUME YOU HAVE BEEN WELL WARNED, AND I WILL NOT HAVE TO COME BACK TONIGHT," said Death wearily.

"I assure you," said Rincewind. Just then a sudden curious thought popped into his head and his mouth ran away with it before his better judgment could catch up. "What are you here for anyway?"

"THE BURSAR CHOKED ON A CHICKEN BONE. BUT IT WAS ONLY A FALSE ALARM."

Death disappeared, leaving Rincewind alone with the ring. Its draw was overwhelming, but Rincewind's instincts were surprisingly over-developed when it came to such things as his own mortality. So he managed to resist its pull... for now.

2

Sam Vimes woke up. Another furious blast of thunder and lightning rolled through Morporkian sky. The temperature outside had dropped significantly due to the storm. Lady Sybil usually insisted on sleeping with the window open to allow for a circulation of fresh air.

Now it was too cold, too noisy, and too wet for that. Vimes hurried over to shut the window.

But just then there was a fortunate flash of lightning, bright enough to illuminate the entire Vimes household. It was fortunate because it had shown him something that he otherwise might not have seen. And had showed someone else more of Vimes than they otherwise might have wished.

He had seen a face so terribly scarred and brutal that it could only belong to one man.

It was the face of Seventy-two-hour Ahmed.

Through the howling wind and rain, and even the violent thunder the sound of a voice rose to his ears.

"Hello, Mister Vimes. It has been a very long time."

3

The ring loomed before Rincewind's face like a forbidden fruit. It had drawn him as near as he could get, and without any regard for his own safety Rincewind allowed the power of the ring to waylay his own defenses.

The knot in his stomach, which he'd grown accustomed to, slowly unraveled, and the tense muscles in his face and arms started to relax. His shoulders went totally slack, and this bundle of nerves and nervous-reflexes (a.k.a. Rincewind) completely shutdown. His senses became senseless.

He was being completely devoured and absorbed by the ring. The effect was quite enjoyable. It was a feeling he recognized, though he couldn't place it. It was almost like being… drunk! That's the one. A better feeling on some occasions than others.

The ring begged him to touch it. No one is looking, the ring told him. Everything will be okay. Don't worry about a thing, my dear Rincewind, it said. I'm just a lonely little ring trying to get home. Please take me.

Rincewind wanted to obey. The ring was so helpless, so beautiful, so… precious…