Lily and Otto were spending their Sunday morning together and whilst many residents of Ankh-Morpork were visiting the Temples of their Gods, they had their own place of worship; the Dark room. They were trying to recreate the phenomenon whereby the imps climbed out of Otto's iconograph but they weren't budging.
"Perhaps zey're asleep?" Otto grinned, "A Sunday mornink lie in?"
"There must be something we're missing," Lily continued, too focussed on what she considered to be a big problem to pay much attention to his banter, "Maybe we need the lantern from your Dark room. It might be a specific light they like?"
"You're sendink me to vork? But I got a day off!" He was being playful but a day off was rare.
"I'll come with you," she returned, determined to get to the bottom of what was wrong with the imps. "We can get breakfast on the way."
###
There was a greasy spoon frequented by many of the Times staff that they were planning to go to, but they found their path blocked by the Watch. Reg Shoe and Detritus were on duty.
"Hello Reg," Otto greeted his fellow undead friend, "Vot's goink on?"
"Can't say," he replied, looking awkward.
Lily thought she spotted something green and she grabbed onto Otto's hand, "It happened again, didn't it?"
"We cannot confirm nor deny dere has been any murders in dis area." Detritus said, pretty much confirming it.
With that, Otto and Lily hurried off to Gleam Street. So much for the day off.
"So, is it him?" Vimes asked the wizard.
Ponder nodded gravely, "Barely recognisable Commander but yes, that's Uthan Dazzle."
"What do you make of it?" Vimes turned to Angua, "Who else was with him?"
The stripe of green up the street terminated about 20 feet away from the body of Dazzle. In the Octiron cage, Doreen was turning in circles, meowing furiously.
"I'm getting something but I can't quite identify it." She sniffed, with the annoyed expression of someone who has a word on the tip of their tongue but is unable to retrieve it.
"If Dazzle's dead, surely it's all over ain't it?" Nobby Nobbs piped up.
Ponder shook his head, "The book is still missing and although some of the library can move by itself* I think this one needs someone to carry it."
*'The Guide to Pleasant Walks on the Disc' being a prime example of a book that can be judged by it's cover. The little legs sticking out the bottom of the pages also acted as convenient bookmarks.
"So someone else has the book now?" Vimes looked heavenward, "And it's blue next?"
Ponder murmured agreement.
"Tell me Mr Stibbons, what happens when we get to the final chapter? Octarine is the most magical colour I'm led to believe, so what can we expect?"
Oh dear, Ponder thought, here we go.
###
The latest news on the case had filtered through to the Times and the dwarves were busy racking up the letters. Otto saw Jeff who had managed to get some half-decent pictures from the view of the bedroom window of a house at the end of the street. "William's looking for you mate, somethin' to do wi' the 'Mark 2'?" He nodded politely to Lily, "Ms Flach, lookin' lovely as always."
Lily flushed at the compliment but Otto was less impressed and shot Jeff a look, "Come on zen," and they quickly found William and Sacharissa who were at the former's desk looking through some pictures with a frown. Lily noticed the Pictsie Mark 2 and picked it up giving it a cursory inspection.
"Vot are zose?" Otto asked as William handed him the pictures, then "Oh…"
"It uses dark light, doesn't it Otto?" He said accusingly, "I thought you'd stopped all that."
"Not exactly," he showed Lily who grimaced at the images. In each and every one there was a hooded figure, but in a few there was a second taller hooded figure, holding an equally tall gardening implement.
"That's not an accomplice, is it?" Sacharissa asked knowing full well from their experiences with the land eels in the past that it was not always the past or future that showed up, but rather the truth.
"I think we need a word with 'The Turning of the Cogs' to see exactly what she's done to the imps in here," Lily stroked the Pictsie as if to soothe it. "It just needs a few adjustments perhaps?"
"Like a good smashing," William muttered.
"Hmm?" Lily didn't quite hear.
"Do you think you could go with Sacharissa to the crime scene? Jeff's pictures aren't quite our usual quality. If you had the iconograph and an explanation for the Watch it might be a good way to get in."
So they did. Reg and Detritus stood their ground but Angua heard the mention of the iconograph and let them in. At this point they could see the chromodemons clearing out the green, a blanket now covering the body of Dazzle. They could also hear the shout of "WHAT?!" from Commander Vimes* who was not best pleased with Ponder's theory.
*So did residents several streets away.
"I know, I know, but it's how it works with books. They build up to a big ending."
"Big ending? That's an understatement. It'd wipe the city off the bloody map."
Sacharissa, Otto and Lily quickly picked up on the facts; the last chapter of 'The Colour of Magick' could release enough Octarine to destroy Ankh-Morpork. There was a theory a similar event had happened much longer ago in the now much avoided Skund Forest which only the very brave, stupid, or people bad with directions entered.
"Maybe we could help?" Lily interjected.
"Who let you in?"
"Me sir, they've got that iconograph." Angua clarified.
"It's no good," Vimes told them, "sent it to the Times. We don't need pictures of Death. Stating the extremely obvious that Death was present."
"Zere is a possibility ve could fix zat, but it seems if zer whole city is goink to be goink down zer golden river vizzout a paddle perhaps ve should be looking at zer future?" he knew it was possible but less reliable than seeing in the other direction. "Zat vay ve vould know vhere zer killer vill strike next and stop him!"
"Stop him how exactly?"
"Vot about zose?" He indicated the chromodemons.
"It might work," Ponder thought aloud, "if we knew exactly where and when the book would be opened next we could use them to 'suck up' all the colour before it caused any damage."
"Might isn't going to cut it," Vimes made clear.
"Could I come to your shop do you think?" Ponder asked Otto and Lily, "perhaps we could put our heads together on this."
All the while Sacharissa's pencil had been busy taking everything down, "I'll come with you," she insisted. She wanted to take something positive back to the Times, in order to reassure the community that something was being done to keep them safe. Of course she was probably going to have to scare them all silly with the potential apocalypse first. That was the free press for you.