The Color of Magic Close to the Edge / Chapter 18 Summary

How It All Goes Down

  • Rincewind wakes up in an uncomfortable afterlife. Upon second glance, he realizes he isn't dead, just suspended on a tree sticking out of the Rim.
  • The tree gives a warning creak.
  • Death comes for Rincewind's soul.
  • Rincewind wonders what he's to die of, and this catches Death off guard.
  • Death reasons that he doesn't need a reason to die, but Rincewind counters that Death can't kill him since that'd be murder.
  • Death reveals himself to be Scrofula, one of Death's assistants—Death couldn't make it because he's booked with the plague in Pseudopolis. Scrofula came instead since Rincewind would be his big chance.
  • Rincewind argues that he has rights as a wizard, and he can't be taken by anyone other than Death.
  • Not wanting his big chance to slip by, Scrofula takes a swipe at the wizard with the scythe, but the tree's branches break at that very moment, sending Rincewind plummeting into space.
  • Rincewind sees below him the entirety of eternity, the Great A'Tuin, and the Potent Voyager.
  • The whole of Creation waits for Rincewind to drop in for another adventure, and lacking an alternative, he does just that.