As the group entered 'Flach and Chriek's they were blissfully unaware that they were being watched. The watcher was experienced at surveillance and had been assured that as a rule Lily Flach's routine rarely changed. This was obviously one of those rare changes but patience was a virtue. It also paid handsomely under the right circumstances.
###
'The Turning of the Cogs' explained the process to the group assembled around the shop counter, "We used the dark light from the eel but it was not good. Pictures were very…" she cringed to demonstrate, "So we does in the eel and chop chop the tail, puts it in butter. Imps loves butter! When they eat the tail, they can makes the dark light all by their own. These ones," she gently tap-tapped the Pictsie, "ate too much."
"So if we get the balance of tail right, we can control how much the imps see into the past?" Lily was humbled by how the goblins were so good at improving tecknologgy and so quickly.
"I haff been vorking on zis for years and never zought to feed zer eels to zer imps!" Then, "Is zere a vay to guarantee zey only see zer future?"
Doreen was on the table in her cage, "Feed it cat?"
"Absolutely not!" Ponder put a protective arm over her.
"Just joking Pointy Hat!" She snickered, "Maybe we try filters? Rose colour lens for past, future so bright we have to use shades."
"How quickly could you get it ready?" Sacharissa asked, "Wouldn't you have to take pictures of the whole of the city?"
"If I starts now," The Turning of the Cogs replied, "then ready by tomorrow lunchtime."
"And we could narrow it down a bit," Ponder answered the second question, "if we assume that the book will stick to the same kind of locations as it has so far. Apart from Dazzle's dorm all the murders have happened in back alleys with minimal lighting."
"Doesn't narrow it down that much," Sacharissa observed, "Most of Ankh-Morpork answers to that description. Ok, so what if you don't get it right and we end up at Octarine. Would those demons be able to soak up the magic?"
"We're summoning as many as possible just in case," Ponder answered, "but they would have to be used at the exact moment the book was opened. Our best bet is to use them on the less magical colours. If the book opens but no lives are sacrificed we think that it will lose enough power to be contained."
Lily asked 'The Turning of the Cogs' if she had any ideas, "If massive explosion of magic? Head between legs and kiss behind goodbye." Goblins had such a way with words.
###
The watcher saw everybody leave and heard the wizard say he was going to update Commander Vimes. This target had a lot of friends it seemed. The vampire did not leave with them which was problematic and so another wait was in order. The watcher was confident it would not have to be too long however. There was time enough.
###
Dulling was in the dark, a book by his side. The book was trying to talk to him but he did not want to listen. He wanted to go home. The book sent him visions of a busy street in the city, not far from Dulling's lodgings. Dulling sent the 'The Colour of Magick' another vision, of him ripping the book's cover from its spine. The book sent him image after horrific image of Dulling's spine having the same treatment that it was impossible to look away from. Eventually he screamed at the book to stop and he found himself standing somewhere cool, wet and loud with the rush of rimfall. He looked outwards to the blackness of eternal night, "The edge of the world…"
It was stunningly beautiful but Dulling was overwhelmed by a sense of deep sadness. He tried to turn his back on the dark; to look towards the disc, towards his adoptive city, towards his friends and a girl who took pictures of her sandwiches. But the book would only allow him to look up into the rimbow above him, the colour blue engulfing the other hues. "No!" The Orc defied his captor, "No!"
The next thing he knew, he was back on the busy street and it was early evening, only just starting to get dark. The book was in his hands and despite fighting the urge to open it he knew he wouldn't be able to stop himself, "RUN!" he roared in warning before blue light encompassed the entire thoroughfare. A carriage fell, people fell, all victims to the book before it clapped shut and yanked Dulling back screaming into the darkness.
###
There was one survivor of the onslaught of colour and he tremblingly got up from behind the safety of his sausage cart. He had dived to the ground at the moment he heard the shout to run. Cut-me-own-throat Dibbler would never have got very far in life without quick reflexes.
He surveyed a scene so blue that it appeared like the sky had crashed down. Shaking as he made out bodies in the destruction before him, he stood with silent tears running down his face and waited for help.