Come one! Come all! Lords, ladies, yeomen, children of all ages. come under the Yellow Tent and see! See! See the death-defying acrobatics of the Nine Eggshells! See the enigmatic Miss Appellation and her cadre of trained flying tigers! See the pyrotechnic Words of Flame conjured forth by the great High Duke Holiness Runespeaker Masters-the-Lore-of-the-Past! See the fabulous beasts from lands unknown! See Three-Head-Annie, a litorian with not one, not two, but three heads! See the colossal Ar-Mentan, whose prodigious reach is matched only by his enormous carrying capacity! See the precision flight of the Blue Roses Blooming Squadron, as they navigate a course of eleven flaming hoops, six barbed-wire barricades, and a live giholick!

See! Hear! Feel! Come one, come all to Doctor Sawdust’s Parade of Wonders!

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Within Living Memory we find a multitude of images of Doctor Sawdust (1311-1380). Focus on him, ease him from out the nooks and crannies of the Memory. His life ended one hundred twelve years ago; among the living only faen remember him. Separate out one faen’s memory of watching him perform.

Your keywords are “Doctor Sawdust” and “circus.” Smell sawdust, hear the roar of the crowd, taste air’s bitterness from pulltack dung, see the bright colors, feel the wood of riser on which you sit..

He stands in a ring of sawdust, within a tent. You are looking down at him from your seat in the stands. What color is his jacket? What color is his hair? How tall is he (and remember, the memories you peruse are a faen’s; observe the apparent size of the peasants around you)? What is he saying?

Now shift your awareness, move from passively scanning the Living Memory to actively drawing from it. Hear Doctor Sawdust’s oratory, absorb his wisdom. Fill your mind with the professional skills of a ringmaster.

In the great Plaza of Memory is stored the mind of Doctor Sawdust, in an eidolon stone. Reach for it, using the faen’s perceptions to guide you. Scan Doctor Sawdust’s contribution to the Living Memory and draw from it his mother’s name. Hear her sing.

(“Doctor Sawdust (Exercise 54A)” from Akashic Exercises, 34th Edition, printed 1492 in the Eternal City.)

SEE ALSO: the Blue Roses Blooming Squadron, Zully the Liar, Giholicks