[Canon Review] 03) Equal Rites
"I was foolish," said a voice in tones no mortal could hear. "I assumed the magic would know what it was doing."
Perhaps it does.
"If only I could do something . . . ."
There is no going back. There is no going back, said the deep, heavy voice like the closing of crypt doors.
The wisp of nothingness that was Drum Billet thought for a while.
"But she's going to have a lot of problems."
That's what life is all about. So I'm told. I wouldn't know, of course.
"What about reincarnation?"
Death hesitated.
You wouldn't like it, he said. Take it from me.
"I've heard that some people do it all the time."
You've got to be trained to it. You've got to start off small and work up. You've no idea how horrible it is to be an ant.
"It's bad?"
You wouldn't believe it. And with your karma an ant is too much to expect.
The baby had been taken back to its mother and the smith sat disconsolately watching the rain.
Drum Billet scratched the cat behind its ears and thought about his life. It had been a long one, that was one of the advantages of being a wizard, and he'd done a lot of things he hadn't always felt good about. It was about time that ....
I haven't got all day, you know, said Death, reproachfully.
The wizard looked down at the cat and realized for the first time how odd it looked now.
The living often don't appreciate how complicated the world looks when you are dead, because while death frees the mind from the straitjacket of three dimensions it also cuts it away from Time, which is only another dimension. So while the cat that rubbed up against his invisible legs was undoubtedly the same cat that he had seen a few minutes before, it was also quite clearly a tiny kitten and a fat, half-blind old moggy and every stage in between. All at once. Since it had started off small it looked like a white, catshaped carrot, a description that will have to do until people invent proper four-dimensional adjectives.
Death's skeletal hand tapped Billet gently on the shoulder.
Come away, my son.
"There's nothing I can do?"
Life is for the living. Anyway, you've given her your staff.
"Yes. There is that."
Perhaps it does.
"If only I could do something . . . ."
There is no going back. There is no going back, said the deep, heavy voice like the closing of crypt doors.
The wisp of nothingness that was Drum Billet thought for a while.
"But she's going to have a lot of problems."
That's what life is all about. So I'm told. I wouldn't know, of course.
"What about reincarnation?"
Death hesitated.
You wouldn't like it, he said. Take it from me.
"I've heard that some people do it all the time."
You've got to be trained to it. You've got to start off small and work up. You've no idea how horrible it is to be an ant.
"It's bad?"
You wouldn't believe it. And with your karma an ant is too much to expect.
The baby had been taken back to its mother and the smith sat disconsolately watching the rain.
Drum Billet scratched the cat behind its ears and thought about his life. It had been a long one, that was one of the advantages of being a wizard, and he'd done a lot of things he hadn't always felt good about. It was about time that ....
I haven't got all day, you know, said Death, reproachfully.
The wizard looked down at the cat and realized for the first time how odd it looked now.
The living often don't appreciate how complicated the world looks when you are dead, because while death frees the mind from the straitjacket of three dimensions it also cuts it away from Time, which is only another dimension. So while the cat that rubbed up against his invisible legs was undoubtedly the same cat that he had seen a few minutes before, it was also quite clearly a tiny kitten and a fat, half-blind old moggy and every stage in between. All at once. Since it had started off small it looked like a white, catshaped carrot, a description that will have to do until people invent proper four-dimensional adjectives.
Death's skeletal hand tapped Billet gently on the shoulder.
Come away, my son.
"There's nothing I can do?"
Life is for the living. Anyway, you've given her your staff.
"Yes. There is that."