Soul Music
Chapters - Terry Pratchett
Section: A Reckless Wish
Susan Sto Helit is a sixteen-year-old student at the Quirm College for Young Ladies, the granddaughter of Death through his adopted daughter Ysabell and Mort. Her parents died in a coach accident years ago - an accident Death could have prevented but chose not to. Susan has inherited certain abilities from her grandfather: she can make herself invisible, walk through walls, and occasionally sees things from the supernatural world, including the Tooth Fairy. She is fiercely rational and resents these talents.
In the rain-soaked mountains of Llamedos, Imp y Celyn, a young bard who has quarrelled with his druid father, sets out for Ankh-Morpork with his beautiful harp and a reckless wish to be the greatest musician in the world. Something in the universe hears him. Death, meanwhile, sits in his domain brooding about mortality and meaning, haunted by memories of Miss Flitworth. Albert and the Death of Rats watch him with growing concern.
POV: Susan Sto Helit·On page: Imp y Celyn, Death, Albert, The Death of Rats, Miss Butts, Miss Delcross, Gloria Thogsdaughter, Princess Jade
Section: Music With Rocks In
Imp arrives in Ankh-Morpork and tries to join the Musicians' Guild, but cannot afford the membership fee. He falls in with Glod Glodsson, a dwarf horn player, and Cliff, a troll percussionist, and they form a band. In a mysterious music shop that was never there before, Imp finds a guitar - an instrument unknown on the Disc - that seems alive with its own dark energy. When they play at the Mended Drum, something extraordinary happens: the music takes them over. It is raw, primal, electrifying - Music With Rocks In.
Susan discovers Binky in the school stables, realises she is being summoned, and eventually rides to Death's domain to find it empty. Death has vanished, overwhelmed by existential despair, and Albert persuades Susan that she must take over the family business. The Death of Rats, accompanied by the talking raven Quoth, goes looking for Death.
POV: Imp y Celyn, Susan Sto Helit·On page: Glod Glodsson, Cliff, Albert, The Death of Rats, Hibiscus Dunelm, Miss Butts, Gloria Thogsdaughter
Section: Susan Takes the Scythe
Susan reluctantly takes up Death's duties, riding Binky across the Disc to collect souls. She is horrified but efficient, inheriting her grandfather's ability to walk through walls and stop time. She discovers that Imp y Celyn is fated to die - his lifetimer is running out fast, consumed by the music that possesses him. The guitar is alive, feeding on his life force, and the Music With Rocks In is spreading across the city like a virus, changing everyone it touches.
Archchancellor Ridcully and the wizards at Unseen University are disturbed by the new music rattling their windows. Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler sees commercial opportunity in the band, now calling themselves 'The Band With Rocks In', and appoints himself their manager. Imp adopts the stage name 'Buddy' - a translation of his Llamedos name, which means 'bud of the holly'. The music grows wilder and more dangerous with each performance.
POV: Susan Sto Helit·On page: Imp y Celyn, Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler, Mustrum Ridcully, Glod Glodsson, Cliff, The Bursar, The Dean, The Senior Wrangler, The Lecturer in Recent Runes, Ponder Stibbons, The Librarian, Asphalt, Mr Clete, Hibiscus Dunelm
Section: The City Catches On
Music With Rocks In transforms Ankh-Morpork. Dibbler organises a grand concert, and the music's influence spreads to every corner of the city. People start dressing differently, talking differently, moving differently. The wizards find their staffs vibrating sympathetically. Susan, trying to understand why Imp is fated to die, investigates the mysterious guitar and the shop it came from, which shifts through dimensions.
Death is found by the Death of Rats in the city, trying to forget himself in noise and crowds. He has been drinking and attempting to play music - badly. He is in a profound depression, unable to face the endless cycle of reaping lives. Albert worries that if Death does not return soon, the damage to the cosmic order could be irreparable. Glod and Cliff begin to realise that something is very wrong with Buddy and the guitar.
POV: Susan Sto Helit·On page: Imp y Celyn, Death, Albert, The Death of Rats, Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler, Glod Glodsson, Cliff, Mustrum Ridcully, The Bursar, The Dean, The Senior Wrangler, The Lecturer in Recent Runes, Ponder Stibbons, The Librarian, Asphalt, Miss Butts, Gloria Thogsdaughter, Princess Jade, Crash, Jimbo, Noddy, Scum
Section: On Tour
Dibbler sends the Band With Rocks In on a tour across the Disc, seeking maximum profit while the craze lasts. Buddy grows more consumed by the music with each performance - he barely eats, barely sleeps, and the guitar seems to be playing him rather than the other way around. Glod and Cliff try to keep him grounded but the music is too powerful.
Susan follows the band, trying to find a way to save Imp's life. She discovers that the music itself is a form of life - an entity from the dungeon dimensions that feeds on belief and performance. It made a deal with Imp at the moment of his reckless wish: he would be the greatest musician ever, but the music would consume his life. Susan is drawn to the young bard despite herself, her emotional defences cracking against her will. She begins to understand her grandfather's problem: when you care about individuals, the job of Death becomes unbearable.
POV: Imp y Celyn, Susan Sto Helit·On page: Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler, Glod Glodsson, Cliff, Asphalt, Mr Clete
Section: The Free Festival
Dibbler organises a massive free festival at an outdoor venue, with the Band With Rocks In as the headline act. Ridcully and the wizards attend, ostensibly to investigate the music's magical properties but increasingly caught up in its spell. The crowd is enormous and ecstatic. Susan realises that the climax of the concert will be the climax of Buddy's life - the music intends to kill him at the peak of his performance, because the legend of a musician dying young is the most powerful music of all.
She confronts Albert, who explains that the music comes from a dimension where stories are real, and this particular story demands a tragic ending. Only Death can override fate, but Death has abdicated. The Death of Rats makes one more attempt to reach his master, accompanied by Quoth the raven.
POV: Susan Sto Helit·On page: Imp y Celyn, Albert, The Death of Rats, Mustrum Ridcully, Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler, Asphalt, Crash, Jimbo, Noddy, Scum
Section: Stopping the Crescendo
The great concert begins. Buddy plays with supernatural brilliance, the music blazing through him like lightning through a conductor. Glod and Cliff play their hearts out beside him. The crowd is transported. Susan, in the crowd, sees the lifetimer draining away and knows she cannot allow herself to interfere - it is against the rules of Death's office.
But Susan is not Death. She is human, with human feelings, and she has inherited her grandfather's fatal flaw: the capacity to care. As the music reaches its crescendo and Buddy's life gutters like a candle, she makes her choice. She cannot save him by the rules - but she can bend them, using the same trick her grandfather once used: she stops time.
POV: Susan Sto Helit·On page: Imp y Celyn, Glod Glodsson, Cliff, Mustrum Ridcully, The Bursar, The Dean, The Senior Wrangler, The Lecturer in Recent Runes, Ponder Stibbons, The Librarian, Asphalt, Mr Clete
Section: The Cart and the Cliff
After the concert, the band rides away in a cart - and the music demands its ending. The cart plunges off a cliff on a dark road, just as Mort and Ysabell's coach did years before. History is repeating itself: the children die while Death watches and does nothing. But this time Susan is there on Binky, riding into the space between moments to catch Buddy, Glod and Cliff at the point of death.
She smashes the guitar, breaking the music's hold. Without its vessel, the entity from the dungeon dimensions dissipates. But without the guitar, Imp is just a talented bard - not the greatest musician who ever lived. The wish is unwished. Susan alters the timeline so that the crash never happened and the band simply broke up after the festival. Death returns to his duties, having realised through Susan's actions that caring is not a weakness but the whole point.
POV: Susan Sto Helit·On page: Imp y Celyn, Glod Glodsson, Cliff, Death, Asphalt, Mr Clete, Crash, Jimbo, Noddy, Scum
Section: Death Returns to Duty
Death resumes his office, taking back the scythe and hourglass from Susan. She confronts him about her parents' deaths - why he let them die when he could have saved them. Death explains that he learned from the experience with Mort and Princess Keli that interfering with fate creates more problems than it solves. But he also acknowledges that sometimes the rules must bend.
Albert is relieved to have his master back. The Death of Rats returns to his duties with Quoth the raven. The music fades from the Disc, leaving only vague memories and a few people who can't quite remember why they bought leather trousers. In a music shop in Llamedos, a young man with no memory of fame picks up a harp and plays, quite well but not supernaturally.
POV: Susan Sto Helit·On page: Death, Albert, The Death of Rats, Asphalt
Section: Back to Normal
Susan returns to the Quirm College for Young Ladies, resuming her education and her determined normality. No one remembers the Music With Rocks In clearly - it has faded like a dream. But Susan remembers everything, including the young bard she saved and the feelings she is not quite ready to acknowledge. She keeps Binky at the school stables and occasionally, when no one is looking, rides into the night sky.
Death sits in his study with his 'World's Greatest Grandad' mug and reflects on what he has learned about family. He has a granddaughter who is as stubborn, logical and surprisingly compassionate as he is. The cycle continues - life, death, and the music that connects them. Ridcully and the wizards return to their normal routines, the Mended Drum goes back to its usual fights, and Dibbler moves on to his next doomed enterprise.
POV: Susan Sto Helit·On page: Death, Ponder Stibbons, Asphalt, Mr Clete·Mentioned: Mustrum Ridcully, Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler