Chapter 1: Prologue Part 1
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	"Sir...Sir...It's time to get up. Sir?" The voice cut into Lahndo's
dream like a knife. He sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
	"Wha...What's going on? Where am I?" he said groggily.
	"You're in the new town sir, remember?"
	"Oh yea." Lahndo muttered, "Well, Ezzerhall, what's on the agenda for
today?" 'Ezzerhall,' thought Lahndo, 'What a weird name.' It had
probably been changed by his parents when they entered the original
cult of Kefka. Lots of the Monks had done that. But naming conventions
changed quickly. Nowadays, the Monk's children were named after The New
Saints. The youngest children were named things like 'Terra' and
'Edgar'. Coming out of his reverie, Lahndo remembered that Ezzerhall
was talking to him.
	"Sir?" Ezzerhall said, "Did you hear me? I said you have to go check
on the apparatus. It's your job to make sure it's working properly.
Only you can do it."
	"Yeah, lets go down to the sub-basements." Lahndo said, speaking
through a yawn, "Just let me get a cup of coffee first."
                                * * * *
	After the required cup of Java had been consumed, Lahndo and
Ezzerhall left the tent, and headed to the main Kiva. When they passed
through the main temple area, the young children, who were taking
classes in the makeshift school ran out to meet them. They clamored
around, asking questions and basking in the chance to actually talk to
Lahndo. "Did you actually TALK to Kefka?" asked one girl.
	"Yes, I did," answered Lahndo, "He told me to take everyone away from
the tower and build this Kiva instead."
	The teacher ran out of the main temple area. He was an aging monk,
with no magic to speak of. "Children," he shouted, "get Back into class
this instant! What is so intriguing out here...Oh! Sir..." He bowed
deeply. "I didn't know you were out here. I'll..."
	"Don't worry about it." Lahndo said, cutting him off. "And don't Bow!
I'm not Kefka, I'm just an administrator. Your job is much more
important than mine." He took the aging monk's hand and lifted him up.
"I just make sure that the Church runs smoothly, while you do the real
important work and educate these youngsters. Anyone could replace me,
but you are extremely precious. Remember that. You're much more needed
than I." Lahndo and Ezzerhall separated themselves from the crowd and
walked on.
                                * * * *
	When they reached the stairway that led to the deepest sub-basement
of the Kiva, Ezzerhall turned to Lahndo and asked, "Did you really mean
that? I mean, were you serious about what you said to that teacher?"
	"Yes," Lahndo replied, "Because It's True."
	"What do you mean, True?" Ezzerhall said, indignantly, "You're the
Magimaster of the Church of Kefka! Kefka himself appointed you! How can
some dumb old schoolteacher be more important than you?"
	"Ezzerhall, Ezzerhall. Don't you see? I just make sure that the
church runs smoothly. But Daniel there, he makes sure that young people
know about the truth. He guarantees the continuity of our church. He
makes sure that the young know Kefka's true message. I take care of the
present, but he secures the future."
	"But aren't you our leader? I mean, don't you set church policy and
things like that?" Ezzerhall asked, confused.
	"Yes, I do." Lahndo replied, "But it doesn't mean that I'm better
than anyone else. We're all equals here. I just happen to be directing
the action at the moment. I'm not really 'In charge' anymore that you
are better than your peers because you're my secretary. You do know why
you were chosen as my secretary, don't you?"
	"Yes..." moaned Ezzerhall, "because of my photographic memory.
Because you suck at taking notes and keeping track of what you have to
do."
	"Well, that's one way to put it." Lahndo said. "Ah, here we are."
	They had arrived at a giant steel door, with a giant combination
lock. Lahndo spun the wheels of the lack till they spelled the secret
password, 'PraiseKefka', and opened the door. Inside the small room,
several machines were chugging away frantically. Lahndo went over to
the main switch, and flipped it to the 'standby' position. The huge
steam boiler power plant switched over to charging the emergency
batteries, and the Magitek equipment ground to a halt. The setup was
ingenious really. The steam boiler power plant burned wood or any sort
of fuel and used the heat to boil water which turned turbines, and
generated electricity. The electricity was fed into a Core Pack from a
magitek Guardian. The Core Pack usually transformed Magical energy into
electricity, which had been used to power Weapons in the days of the
empire. But, since every generator is also a motor, this core pack was
running in reverse, and was turning electricity into Magical power.
This was then attached to a magitek infusion chamber. This used to be
the receiving end of an esper drain, but at the moment was frantically
charging several tinctures.
	Lahndo went over every detail of the Core Pack and Infusion Chamber.
This was rather important, seeing as operating magitek equipment that
was damaged could cause it to explode. 'Hmph. And those esper mages
think Ultima has destructive force. They should see one of these Babies
go off.' Lahndo thought to himself. 'Then again, It'd better not. We
need this thing working if we want to keep building our town and
temple.' "All clear here," he shouted to Ezzerhall. "How's it look on
your end?"
	"The power plant is A-ok." Ezzerhall said. "Shall we open up?"
	"Not yet," replied Lahndo. "Let's wait for Bob to come and pick these
up," he indicated the tinctures.
	A few minutes later, Bob arrived. The jolly merchant swept into the
room with a hearty "Hey, how's it going guys? Got any more tilt for
me?"
	"Of course," Lahndo replied, "Why wouldn't we?" But inside he was
thinking, 'This "Bob" guy is as corrupt as the day is long. I'd bet
that over half the tilt we give him is going to the black market. But
that's life. He's the only merchant we've got, and one of our few adult
converts from outside of the original cult.' He handed Bob the
tinctures that had been in the Infusion Chamber.
	"Ah. Tilt." Bob said. "The nectar of the Gods."
	"Go on with ya..." Lahndo said, his tone of voice friendly, but
inside he was thinking 'get out of my sight you scumbag.' "Oh...and
Bob?"
	"Yes?"
	"Send in the first mage, would ya?"
	"Sure, sure..." muttered Bob, as he left the room.
                                * * * *
	An aging monk entered the room. She looked rather worn, but her eyes
still had that characteristic spark of someone who still loved life.
"Hello," she said in a soft, caring voice, "I'm here for a magic
restoration."
	"What's your Name?" said Lahndo.
	"Hazel." Responded Hazel.
	"Reason for Empowerment Request?" Lahndo added, going through the old
routine.
	"Working on building committee." Hazel replied.
	"How long will you be working?" Lahndo uttered.
	"As long as I can." She replied.
	"Are you aware that the process takes an hour, that it does not
restore ultimate magic spells, and that the empowerment only lasts
Twenty-Four hours?" Lahndo recited the short statement he had made to
every prospective monk seeking empowerment.
	"Yes." she said.
	"Well, In you go." Lahndo replied, opening the door to the chamber.
Hazel stepped into the chamber, and after checking the connection to
the power station, threw the switch from 'standby' to 'active'. The
chamber began to irradiate Hazel's body with magical radiation, and
Lahndo settled back to watch the readouts and make sure that everything
stayed under control.
                                * * * *
	Several hours of boring dial readings later, and several mages later
as well, Lahndo said, "Hey, Ezzerhall?"
	"What?" Ezzerhall replied.
	"You know what gets me down about this job?"
	"What?"
	"I spend all my time watching these machines and making tilt, and I
never seem to do my job as leader of the Church. I mean, I haven't led
a service in over a month. And yet...Even though I'm doing nothing, I
still have terrible stress problems. I mean, I've got muscle tension
from here to china. And even if I stopped doing this and had someone
else take over, I'd just have more problems to deal with. They'd
probably expect me to go attempt to 'reason' with the holdouts in the
old tower. And then there's the construction to oversee...I'm not doing
anything, yet I'm doing so much I miss meals and have no private time,
Ya know what I mean?"
	"Yes," Ezzerhall said, "I know what you mean. I'm with you everyday,
doing the same things. I'm the one who schedules your activities. Trust
me, It could be a lot worse. I could say yes to every meeting, building
dedication, and merchant cartel that comes your way. Man, you're lucky
you've got me around to edit out the riffraff."
	"Yea, I know." Lahndo said "Don't think I don't appreciate it either.
But I just have to find some way to get away from it all. I can't take
much more of this. What would you do, Ezzerhall?"
	"I'd take a day off. Go see the opera or something. I hear they have
a great show." Ezzerhall suggested.
	"Hmm...A day off. What a nice idea. But I have so much work to do.
What's next on the agenda, Hmmm?" Lahndo had brushed the suggestion
aside, but it nagged at the back of his mind, persistently calling him
to action.
	"Next on the list is some policy. There are increasingly large
numbers of monks who have become tilt addicts. They've built up a
tolerance, so it has no useful purpose for them. You need to decide the
church's stance on this. It's really impairing their effectiveness in
all aspects of their work."
	"Hmm...That's a touchy subject...I'll have to think about it long and
hard. Put some time to think on tomorrow's list, and put the question
on next week's list. What's up next?"
	"Dealing with Bob's release of tilt in the black market. We have
proof now, so the only question is how we deal with him."
	"Hmmm...I'll have to think about THAT some more too. We need Bob,
even if he is corrupt. Postpone it. What's next?"
	"Well, we have had some problems with..." Ezzerhall's voice faded
into the background as Lahndo thought more about his earlier
suggestion. 'A vacation would just be wonderful...' He thought.