The trolls attack Herrena’s mercenaries. As Rincewind scrambles for cover, Old Grandad raises a fist to crush him, but daylight petrifies the troll mid-swing. Rincewind squirms free from beneath the frozen fist, and the group reunites below.

Cohen grabs the Luggage’s lid and physically wrestles it until Twoflower orders it to stand down. Cohen looks inside and finds only laundry and biscuits where the gold had been. Twoflower explains he bought the Luggage from a mysterious shop that vanished afterward, and Cohen accepts this explanation. Rincewind produces Cohen’s missing liniment, and Bethan begins treating the old warrior’s back.

Rincewind persuades Twoflower to ride off and leave Cohen and Bethan behind, claiming the old warrior is too dangerous. When Twoflower and the Luggage turn back, Rincewind loses his resolve and follows them, whereupon Herrena captures the wizard and the tourist in an ambush. The group travels on with the two prisoners. The Luggage trails them through the landscape, surfacing periodically to unsettle a mercenary named Weems. Rincewind needles the man further by describing in vivid detail how the sapient pearwood chest is patient, relentless, and will hunt him down no matter the distance.

By late afternoon, the party reaches a ferry crossing on the upper Smarl. Twoflower starts laughing when he sees that the ferry is operated by a small, hooded stranger, whom he recognizes as Cohen. Suspicious, Herrena orders her mercenaries to seize the figure. Cohen reveals himself and strikes his captors, and a general brawl erupts. Weems knocks Rincewind down, and Herrena orders her mercenaries to kill the two prisoners while she deals with Cohen herself.

The Luggage surges out of the river, and pursues the terrified Weems, and devours him. Cohen disarms Herrena in their duel, but his back locks up, leaving him frozen in pain. As Herrena moves to finish him, Bethan steps from the mist, knocks her unconscious with a branch, and cracks Cohen’s spine back into place. A snapping sound from the fog implies that the Luggage has devoured Weems.

Around the campfire that evening, Cohen reveals that the Luggage alerted him and Bethan to the earlier ambush. He and Bethan announce they plan to marry as soon as they find a priest. Rincewind draws Cohen aside and raises the considerable age gap between them. Cohen listens, reflects, and concludes they’ll proceed with the wedding regardless.

The following day, the group rides into a nearly deserted city. A fleeing resident explains that people have abandoned their homes in fear of the red star, which is predicted to strike the Disc on Hogswatchnight. The few remaining inhabitants belong to a cult whose preacher, Dahoney, argues that the gods have gone, magic was always fraudulent, and the approaching star demands violent purification of the Disc.

Cohen separates from the rest of the group to visit a jeweler. The Spell speaks through Rincewind about Great A’Tuin reaching the far boundary of the universe. Rincewind also perceives Death standing in the crowd. Death explains he’s come to witness a possible future and expresses his disapproval of the cult’s ideology.

When the cultists single out Rincewind as a wizard and describe how they’ve slaughtered many other wizards, he attempts to bluff his way free. The Spell takes control of his arm and releases a burst of fire that vaporizes the man holding him. Twoflower and Bethan hustle away Rincewind, who is intoxicated with the excitement of successfully casting a spell for the first time, only for the three to be cornered in a dead-end alley by more cultists. With the Luggage nowhere to be found, the mob advances. Suddenly, a magical shop materializes in the alley wall, scattering the crowd.

Meanwhile, Cohen visits Lackjaw, a dwarf jeweler who has crafted dentures from a troll’s diamond tooth. Six armed star cultists enter to drive Lackjaw out for belonging to a magical race. Cohen incapacitates the leader, tricks another into stabbing his own foot, and sends the rest fleeing with orders to warn the city that Cohen the Barbarian objects to the stars painted everywhere. Lackjaw packs his tools and joins Cohen.

Moving through the city, they encounter cultists burning books in the street. When more armed men arrive, Cohen and Lackjaw flee through city streets and an inn, emerging in a secluded alley. There they find the Luggage sitting motionless against a wall, staring intently at the opposite wall as if baffled by something on the other side. Cohen tells the Luggage that they should work together since they’re both looking for someone they care about. In response, the Luggage smashes through the wall into a storeroom beyond, where it stands, seemingly just as confused as before.

The narrative returns to Rincewind, Twoflower, and Bethan, who find themselves inside a crowded, cluttered magical shop. The door vanishes, trapping them. A small, irritable shopkeeper appears and confirms the shop is magical and moves through the universe without warning.

Rincewind awakens from his magical stupor and resolves to return the Spell to the Octavo at the first opportunity. Bethan intimidates the shopkeeper into agreeing to release them. The Spell speaks through Rincewind again, declaring that the star is “life, not death.” Grasping that the Spell wants to reach Ankh-Morpork, Rincewind asks the shopkeeper to take them there.

In the back room, the shopkeeper shows Twoflower a view of the universe through which the shop navigates. They observe Great A’Tuin swimming through space, its gaze fixed not on the approaching red star but on a small nearby patch of space. The shopkeeper confides that a sorcerer cursed him to run the shop forever without closing because he didn’t have the item the sorcerer wanted. Twoflower mentions that he bought his Luggage from a similar shop, and the shopkeeper confirms there are several such establishments. He navigates the establishment toward Ankh-Morpork.