A Terrible Plan

It begins with one man and his grief. The man's name was Paragus Chandon. Paragus was in his mind-twenties, and had spiked hair that rose into two points, like devil horns. But there was nothing devilish about Paragus. He was a quiet, reserved man who led a life of pastoral happiness. He owned an Inn in the town of Pistopon, North-western Permiat, near the Tersee District. It was a popular place, frequented by soldiers, and Paragus made good business out of it. He had young wife, Cochise and a tiny daughter, Mehetabel.

Paragus' happiness was shattered a few years after the end of the Saiyan-Tsufurun war, when Cochise became gravely ill with the Wasting Sickness and eventually died. Paragus had had a very quiet war, and had never experienced a loss like this before. He took it very badly. He lost all interest in life and could think of nothing but his dead wife, her eyes, the soft spikes of her hair. His life seemed to stretch out before him like a dark, meaningless desert. He felt like it would not be possible for him to feel happiness again. And what of poor little Mehetabel? How would the girl grow up with out a mother?

Paragus felt like nothing in his life was going right now his wife was gone. Three days after her burial, standing on the cold moors of Tersee, it occurred to him that if only he could somehow bring Cochise back to life, all his problems would be solved. From that moment the idea consumed him. It was an obsession.

He was sure there must be some way to bring a dead person back to life- there were stories about it, and wasn't it said that nothing was impossible with the power of the moon? But he reasoned it must be very hard- otherwise every grieving family would bring their loved ones back. And of course, they couldn't, because then there would be chaos. But he would be different. He had loved his wife in a way that was special; he was determined to bring her back. He was prepared to do anything.

The first place he went was the public library, taking two-year old Mehetabel with him. While she played with some coloured blocks, he studied the full edition of the Book of the White Circle. It contained many references to what happened to Saiyans after death, but had nothing to say on the subject of reversing death. It did have some lines on how death was natural and Saiyans went to the Third Place after they died, where they were happy. Paragus ignored these.

Finding nothing of help in the Holy Book, Paragus turned to the occult section. There were only five or six books there. They all had plenty of spells, charms and curses there, but nothing about reviving the dead. There were several warnings about taking metaphysical matters into one's own hands, which Paragus again ignored.

He cursed the benign nature of much of the magic. He knew there were several practitioners of the darker spells on the planet Vegeta, notably that scoundrel Bardock and the creepy woman he lived with. Occult practices were frowned on and some types of dark magic were illegal, but for the determined practitioner, there were a few grimoires out there. The problem was, most of them were in private collections.

Then he remembered the greatest book of Dark Magic of them all. The other book of Saiyan religion, the counterpoint to the Book of the White Circle- the book that described the Goddess in her darkest aspect, that included the most disturbing parts of moon-magic. The Book of the Hollow Circle. If any book on the whole planet had instructions for bringing the dead back to life, it would be this one.

But there was only one copy of this on the whole planet, and it was kept locked up somewhere in the King's palace, only brought out when it was desperately needed. There was no way Paragus would ever be able to see it. Sitting in the library, his face in his palms, he cursed the Saiyan King, the Starservants who had insisted only one copy be made of the book, and the culture that had made it inaccessible to virtually everyone. He hurried home in a huff, only glancing at the cemetery where his wife was buried on the way.

He sat at his desk the whole night, burning candle after candle, his mind going over everything he had read. The Goddess' magic seemed strongest when enforced by history. A spell was more likely to be successful if performed in an area where the same spell had worked before, or where a great battle had been won.

He thought once more about the stories of people being brought back to life. Most of the stories, he now realised, had been legends or novels, and there was nothing he could remember from History about someone being revived from the dead. Except for one thing, obviously. The story everybody knew.

King Vegeta the First had brought himself back from the dead by the force of his will to show his utter contempt for the Lords of the Universe. Everyone knew and celebrated this story of Saiyan defiance. No one else could have done such a thing. Paragus shook his sore head. That was precisely why the story was of no use to him. It was a description of a unique feat. Even to think about attempting it would be blasphemy. And besides, when King Vegeta had returned, he had immediately risen to the Third Place to be with the Goddess. He had not truly been brought back to life- rather, as the ancient tablets said; he had transcended Death and Life.

Cochise wouldn't be able to do that. She was just an ordinary woman, not an all-powerful demigod-King. Paragus sat back in his chair, thinking in wonder of the moment the King's corpse had become a living body again, of a pair of black eyes bursting open, full of life and rage.

He thought of the Field of Ash and Bones, a place he had been shown as a child and avoided ever since, where, according to the legend, King Vegeta's death and return to life had taken place. It was an enormous circle of ash and dead ground about fifty miles in diameter. Supposedly nothing had grown there for about seven thousand years. The atmosphere of the place had terrified him as a boy, and he had never returned, despite the fact it was only miles from his inn.

An evil thought stole across his mind.

Of course. Of all the places on the whole planet, that was the most perfect for bringing the dead back to life. If place really had that much of an effect on it, he'd have half his work cut out for him…