"Well that's the beginning of a horror movie in making," he says, looking at the kids and their eerie, echoed, parroted response. To them, he asks, "Return to what?" but doesn't get a response.

He finally drops the girl...

... gently ...

... enough.

She catches herself and her knees don't buckle.

He pulls out his flute, a gift from Aster in the Nether, but sometimes he misses the ornate carved instrument from the other reality. Then again, he had better skill in that reality. Still, he's gotten better from his irritating (if not generally purposeful) tunes. He plays a few long notes, attempting to break focus of whatever lullaby Istredd heard from the girl's mind.

The idea of a Pied Piper--off the German folk legend Hamelin, in which the Pied Piper plays music to lure rats and children out of town--to get the kids to go where they need them to. Except he doesn't have any musical magic, so the only children that follow after him are the non-tranced ones, asking a plethora of interested questions: "Where did you learn to play?" "Can you teach me?" "Who made your flute?" "What song is that?"

Well, look. He's got some of the kids' attention.