Every troupe lies a little about how it began.

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They make the first performance sound legendary. They brighten the first song. They leave out the mud, the hunger, the bad decisions, and the moments when no one knew where the next meal was coming from.

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I would love to say Ayam’s Assembly of Artful Altruists began with dignity. It did not. It began with three performers, one impossible name, and a road none of us were ready for.

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There were no prophecies then. No grand banners. No kings asking for aid.

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There was only a boy with a lute, a gnome with more opinions than height, and a fire dancer still scarred from the hellish life she came from.

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Later, people would call us brave. That is generous. At the start, we were mostly tired, stubborn, underfunded, and very bad at owning horses.

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But every song has its first note.

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This was ours.

— Ayam Handsoom