had built up about them, big cities are just like little towns and villages, just with a more challenging audience (that is, to bother with a simple act in front of such crowds is just asking for trouble). Before long, I had traveled further north, and found myself in Zazesspur.

Ah, Zazesspur. I still wonder why Father disliked it so, and why he kept me from it. Teeming with people and taverns and inns, and so full of opportunities for any self-motivated and enterprising performer, I had arranged regular performances with several taverns. I built some friendships with minstrels and street folk who shared my particular world-view, and had even began to build a following of (dare I say) fans that would travel the length of the city to attend my performances. I was even courted on a few occasions by some theatrical troupes to work in the chorus of this play or that, but I never took them up on their offers. You see, I enjoy the lifestyle of the minstrel, and to this day I would prefer a small, cozy audience to the unwashed masses thronging the public playhouses.

Anyhow, shortly after my rise in local popularity I was rather abruptly confronted by the local guild of performers, and told that if I was to continue in my industry in Zazesspur, I would have to join up and work for the betterment of all the guild members. I was incensed. After all, I was accustomed to working for the betterment of my family, not for a group of complete strangers whose total skill could barely cover the surface of my pinky toenail. However, I digress. Needless to say I did not join the guild, and sharply curtailed my activities in the city. After all, outside the city limits there are still plenty of villages and hamlets that appreciate a skilled voice and a beautiful song to soothe their own worries and troubles. Over the following years, I would perform occasionally in a tavern or inn here or there in Zazesspur proper, and fortunately I haven't heard from them again. Of course, I still watch myself closely while in town, keeping only to

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