His City. He felt he owned it just as much as he owned his robes or his house, his large house with a bathing pool, hidden from view by a high wall. He had been there at the start, at the very beginning of the City – one of the first to understand that the Great Leader was right and that the New Baptism was all that lay between humankind’s terrible past and a wonderful future. Salvation. Hope. That’s what he had given his flock. They were safe, they were happy; they had hard work to occupy them. And if he surrounded himself with the best the City had to offer, if he allowed himself the odd luxury, an indulgence from time to time, it was only right; it was perfectly understandable. He had a great weight on his shoulders; he needed comfort around him to give him the strength to lead. He had been a religious man, in days gone by. He had believed that his faith would protect him, that God had a plan and that He would not forsake his people, but would only test them in order to show them the true path.
