[h3]The Temple of Spring Whistling[/h3][hr][b]"I am as human as you are, you . . . you ninny!"[/b] the little bird huffed -- and if Meryn hadn't distracted Telios then, she might have barraged him with with a flurry of furious name-calling and uncreative insults. Instead, while Telios and Meryn spoke, the bird muttered quietly to herself: [b]"Product of magic, indeed! Servant of the serpent, indeed! I ought to peck you! This is the last time I try to be nice to a ninny."[/b]

After a few moments of sulking, the little bird noticed a shimmer inside a hole in one of the statues. She hopped to the ground and bounced closer, disappearing into the hole. When she emerged, she dragged behind her a curious glass lens set in brass, like the lens from a telescope, that she had found in the hole along with a few other small children's toys. With the lens hooked in one claw, the bird opened her metallic wings and -- with a whizzing noise -- fluttered back to her perch atop the statue's head.

[b]"This is a magus lens,"[/b] she said crisply, still rather perturbed that Telios had snapped at her. She extended a wing toward Meryn -- and to her she spoke more kindly. [b]"Please look through it. You'll see immediately what I meant."[/b]

The magus lens seemed a simple trinket, but the bulbous glass inside swirled with odd colors and reflected strange moving shapes. The glass looked very much like the little bird's small eyes -- and the glassy eyes of Spook's mask.

Through the magus lens, one could see things that were normally invisible to the human eye: luminescent jellyfish gliding through the air; tendrils of spinning light dancing in the treetops; tiny glowing fuzzballs hopping through the grass like fleas. Some clung to the bark of trees, others dangled on shining threads from the branches -- they were everywhere. None of them, however, were permanent: some flickered and were gone, some faded after a moment, others moved about for awhile before drifting out of existence -- but there were always more to take their place.

[b]"Those are dreams,"[/b] the bird explained. [b]"The dreams you know you had but can't remember -- they escape and live on their own, for a short time."[/b] She tipped her head at Telios again. [b]"I cannot see [i]what[/i] you dreamed, but I could see the shape and color of it."[/b]

A breeze whistled across the statues, and shimmering white butterflies fluttered around their stone heads, visible only through the magus lens. When the whistling faded, the butterflies dispersed and melted into the sky.

[h3]The Magic Circle[/h3][hr]Spook seemed not to have noticed that Alexander had launched an attack at his grinning mask, let alone that Kelsier had intercepted on his behalf. He went about his business, and he dropped the second felidrake down into the black void. The creature's terrified screech went silent in the same instant it ceased to exist.

[b]"The explanation is fairly simple,"[/b] he answered in the same smiling voice as always. He dropped his hands in his pockets and turned to face his accusers. [b]"A couple of you clogged the circle with your dreams and threw it off-balance. You ended up opening a portal a shade left of the one we wanted. It happens sometimes."[/b] He shrugged and sat back against a boulder, as if he were exhausted from doing nothing at all to help. [b]"Everyone grab a couple cages and toss them in."[/b]

His glassy eyes focused on Lily, who had been the only one to question this action. [b]"We found their mother sick. There's a slight chance they might be infected,"[/b] he explained happily.

After another moment, he scanned the cages again. [b]"There's one missing,"[/b] he said offhandedly.