at a distance, the news of which would not arrive by normal
means for days or even weeks. Before long, the holy man who had been
carried alive to the Heaven of Yat-Zar would acquire a most awesome
reputation as a prophet, and would speedily rise to the very top of
the priestly hierarchy.

Then he would receive two commandments from Yat-Zar. The first would
ordain that all lower priests must travel about from temple to temple,
never staying longer than a year at any one place. This would insure a
steady influx of newcomers personally unknown to the local
upper-priests, and many of them would be First Level paratimers. Then,
there would be a second commandment: A house must be built for
Yat-Zar, against the rear wall of each temple. Its dimensions were
minutely stipulated; its walls were to be of stone, without windows,
and there was to be a single door, opening into the Holy of Holies,
and before the walls were finished, the door was to be barred from
within. A triple veil of brocaded fabric was to be hung in front of
this door. Sometimes such innovations met with opposition from the
more conservative members of the hierarchy: when they did, the
principal objector would be seized with a sudden and violent illness;
he would recover if and when he withdrew his objections.

Very shortly after the House of Yat-Zar would be completed, strange
noises would be heard from behind the thick walls. Then, after a
while, one of the younger priests would announce that he had been
commanded in a vision to go behind the veil and knock upon the door.
Going behind the curtains, he would use his door-activator to let
himself in, and return by paratime-conveyer to the First Level to
enjoy a well-earned vacation. When the high priest would follow him
behind the veil, after a few hours, and find that he had vanished, it
would be announced as a miracle. A week later, an even greater miracle
would be announced. The young priest would return from behind the
Triple Veil, clad in such raiment as no man had ever seen, and bearing
in his hands a strange box. He would announce that Yat-Zar had
commanded him to build a new temple in the mountains, at a place to be
made known by the voice of the god speaking out of the box.

This time, there would be no doubts and no objections. A procession
would set out, headed by the new revelator bearing the box, and when
the clicking voice of the god spoke rapidly out of it, the site would
be marked and work w