Seeing the Light

by Lovelyruthie

It all started with the 'Colour of Magic' but now there's a new book, 'The Colour of Magick' and it's so insistent to be read that it up and brought itself into existence. Ankh-Morpork is about to be painted red...and orange and yellow. It will take the the Watch, the Wizards, the Vampires and plenty of ingenuity to check the book back into the library before the city checks out.

11. Chapter 11

It worked better at night. The contrast of dark and light was best, at it's most powerful. Dazzle was not quite aware of where he was other than at the side of 'The Colour of Magick'. The book had let him rest but he couldn't remember the last time he had eaten, or drank. A small part of him felt certain that he might already even be dead, but he was powerless to do anything about it. The book would only let him see what it wanted him to see and now he found himself in yet another back alley in the city he once thought of as home. He didn't recognize it any more though.

Before the book had called for him, he was a youthful looking fellow with green hazel eyes. He wore little wire-rimmed spectacles. He was full of face, rosy cheeked with a spattering of freckles. Now his features were gaunt, angular, his complexion pale. The green hazel eyes were now filled in with black, cold specks of starlight within.

There was a couple in the alley that were rather pre-occupied with each other. Dazzle needed to show them something else far more important than the sins of the flesh and tried coughing for attention. They ignored him so he reached out to tap the 'gentleman' on the shoulder. The 'gentleman' responded by swinging a punch, sending the book flying out of Dazzle's hands.

It landed on the cobbles face up and opened, shooting a shaft of bright yellow light into the night. The couple were out of physical reach, but they turned to look which was their fatal mistake. The book slammed shut. Dazzle grabbed it and was gone, back into the shadows. The man and his companion lay in the gutter, but in their eyes were stars.

###

The yellow light, although only momentary in its existence, was seen for miles around by the men, women and goblins of the Clacks Towers. Adora Belle Von Lipwig sent on the round robin messages alerting the City Watch and the Clacks community of the location of the light source, warning anyone other than the Watch to stay clear. As a result Officers were at the site in a matter of minutes, sadly too late for love's young dream and too late to catch Dazzle in the act.

"Dere's no yellow!" Sergeant Bluejohn observed.
Commander Vimes and Captain Carrot knelt by the stricken couple and saw it clearly, "Oh there's yellow alright," the Commander intoned, "I reckon they must have looked a bit too closely."

"There's blood on this man's knuckles," Carrot noted, "Perhaps he fought back?"

"Didn't do him a lot of good." Vimes concluded, "Get some pictures, close up on the eyes, get the cart to take 'em away. See if we can't identify the unlucky couple."