Mort and Ysabel meet, and instantly dislike each other. And as Mort makes a hash of things as Death's apprentice, he finds himself in peril. Ysabel steps up as Mort's unlikely champion, and persuades Death to let Mort live, which he does by turning over Mort's hourglass. After we witness this confrontation, we also learn that Mort and Ysabel were married, and lived happily ever after (until they died in a fiery coach crash, that is. Hey, you can't have everything.
We also begin to make the acquaintance of Death's manservant, Albert, this week. Albert has been 79 for over 2,000 years, so of course he can be tetchy. Unlike Mort and Ysabel, both of whom are shuffled off the Discworld stage at the end of Mort, Albert emerges more and more in later books, especially Soul Music and Hogfather. He and Susan and the Death of Rats constitute Death's household and family through the rest of the books. Susan and the Death of Rats, by the way are.... entities that we will meet next week.
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