"Never underestimate the importance of carnivals, my boy. People need entertainment, some reward for their daily toil. The circus brings its own rules and order, and for a coin you catch a glimpse of the larger world. Then it departs, taking its wonders and strangeness with it, and your average soul returns to the fields content. You see? For just a week everything changes, but then everything returns to exactly the way it was, and no one expects or demands otherwise. They see the width and breadth of creation, but remain unburdened by how small they are in comparison."
-Para count Marcellus Thurvian of Belde, to his eldest son
