In the end, Silvestri was a sick man in a sad state. Though his
intentions were good, he greatly needed help. Perhaps his journey
through time had an effect on his mind. Perhaps times in his day were
not as cheerful as he described. I recall when he first appeared he
dropped a toy that played charming music. It was fashioned to be quite
attractive to a young child, and in fact was clearly intended to be a
toy. But parents beware! If you see one of these then get your children
away as soon as you can. Shortly after the music began a doll sort of
thing popped out and chewed off someone's head! This is no act of
joviality as he claimed to support. This was something much darker.

In a recent visit to Thera, where I often go to retreat in quiet
meditations when my mountain bungalow becomes to cold, I recall a
traumatized human child running away from home. I caught him in a panic
on the road that runs between Seasone and the river. He said a clown had
entered the town making balloon animals and performing juggling acts.
One of the children found one of the toy boxes I described before and he
wound it up. The clown noticed it and smiled greatly, encouraging him to
play with the two. Then the doll-thing popped out and chewed off the
poor child's head! With a laugh of merriment, this clown then quickly
handed a balloon to this child I had found who went soaring into the
air, kicking and screaming with fright. Shortly thereafter the balloon
popped and the boy crashed to the ground. He probably would have died if
a bush hadn't broken his fall. This boy who was running away from home
was now afraid to play with any toys and deathly afraid of clowns. It
drove him over the brink, and he blithely took off on his own to get
away from the horrors despite the broken rib from the fall. Though the
small human ran off before I could find out if he knew the name of this
clown, it nonetheless fits the behaviour pattern of Silvestri.

This pattern is witnessed by what I saw before with this toy, and it is
also from anecdotes of personal friends who witnessed the great joy he
took in launching people into the air with balloons and with glee
watching them fall from high above with a sickening crunch.

Some criticize slaying orphans, calling it an act of evil. Some support
it, saying it is done in the name of research. Irregardless of what one
thinks, few from either side would find that act to be funny. As such I
fail to see how making attractive children's toys that kill swiftly is a
humorous act. I also find it hard to believe that the act of jestering
involved dropping people from high above the tree tops of feet nor
luring children to their death with booby trapped toys nor summoning
death incarnate as he was also able to do, though I have no reports of
him being given a chance to do so. Nay, it is clear that Silvestri was
affected by something that caused him to make jestering have a mix of
something very sinister intermingled with its true amusements. I am
saddened that he had to be dealt with in this way, and I feel that I
speak for most Occultists when I express this sadness. But that is what
happens when one responds to civil discussions with unprovoked acts of
aggression as Silvestri did.

Nonetheless, there is hope. I know most of the leaders of the jesters
and as such have full faith that they will make the art what it is truly
meant to be: an act of laughter, a moment of merriment, a spark of
joviality. I pray, as do many of us, that Silvestri finds joy, that he
be cured of that which has twisted his mind. May he find peace in his
solitude. I wish them well in making the craft what I'm sure Silvestri
in his heart thought he was making it.


Post Scriptum ad Dresden,

Though you clearly have knowledge of the effects of Tarot as so many
others do, you still have shown no sign of knowing the secrets of Tarot.
Yes, I could post all the skills you practice, such as summoning up evil
demons from hell to scourge the good, but to do so is silly. The fact is
I do not know how to summon evil demons from Sartan's hell to do my
bidding as you do, nor do I know how to open immoral, irreligious
windows into that place, thus I do not know its secrets like you do.
Similarly, you do not know how to unlock the power of a Tarot card to
summon forth the Light as my kind do, nor enjoy interplanar travel
without using one of my kind as a crutch, nor how to make your soul safe
from death. Nay, you know naught of the secrets of Tarot, nor many other
magics. Please, in the future, do not be a pretender. Be aware of what
you know, and be aware of what you don't know, for that is the path of
wisdom.

Penned by my hand on the 6th of Scarlatan, in the year 299 AF.