Carter woke to the sound of floorboards creaking. He sat up careful not to wake Zia and looked at the clock next to her bed, 6:30 AM. It was Christmas morning so the little ones would already be up. That's the floor creaking he had heard. He carefully removed himself from the bed without waking Zia and walked over to her desk he wrote a quick note saying,

"Sorry I had to leave to avoid getting caught. Merry Christmas come downstairs when you're ready."

He placed it next to her. If he got caught in here there would be no end to it.

He walked over to her balcony and turned into a falcon then flew out and landed on his own balcony before turning back into human. He quickly showered and changed before heading to the stairs. He stood leaning against the railing at the top of the stairs and saw that almost all of the really little kids had come down and were surrounding the tree.

In the middle of the night the tree had changed. Before it had been the one they had all decorated with ornaments but now it had shimmering hieroglyphs floating in orbit around the tree. Each of the hieroglyphs was an initiate's name. He and Sadie had set that up a few nights ago. That and a trick they did with the presents, they had collected all of the gifts the older kids wanted under the tree and put them in the Duat and charming them to appear under the tree at exactly 5 AM.

The kids were still in their PJ's and Carter watched as they excitedly examined the presents, probally trying to guess the contents without touching it. Carter considered going down but strangely he enjoyed watching them so excited and curious and he thought to himself, "Is this what having kids is like, seeing their joy and knowing you had a part in causing it." He stood there for a few more minutes until he felt arms wrap around his waist. He smiled and turned around. Zia was standing there. She smiled and kissed him. Then she pulled him downstairs to join the kids. He and Zia sat on the couch and convinced them to wait for everyone before opening gifts. They played some small games to keep them distracted until everyone in the house had finally come down.

To avoid chaos Carter volunteered to hand out the gifts that were under the tree. He would pass out one to each person before allowing anyone to open anything then move onto the next row of presents and so on until there was nothing left. There were laughs and thank you's all around. The younger initiates were fun to watch as they opened the gifts and then would scream excitedly about it. Carter and Sadie had worked together to provide at least one gift to everyone labeled "Santa." Individual initiates had given gifts to other initiates and such and were all talking and laughing.

Now relieved of his duties as gift distributer Carter sat next to Zia she had a few gifts next to her and was smiling but it was obvious she had noticed nothing from Carter. He whispered in her ear, "I have your gift in my room I wanted to give it to you in private." She smiled and brushed her lips against his cheek then rested her head on his shoulder.

The group ate breakfast together before everyone went off for their daily activities and to play with their gifts. No magic lessons were to happen today so everyone was free. Now that they were left to their own devices Carter led Zia up to his room to give her his gift. He led her to the balcony to reveal his scrying bowl and a second one with Black oil. He led her over to the one with black oil and looked at her. Zia's expression showed a combonation of confusion and disappointment but he had expected that because he had not fully explained it. He said, "Don't worry its not a regular scrying bowl." He turned to the bowl and said, "September 20th, 2012. Land of Demons." The oil rippled and showed them kissing during their picnic on the beach of the Land of Demons. Carter waved his hand over it and it disappeared. He said, "It's a memory scryer. I read about it in the Book of Thoth after we got it back but before we returned it to Thoth. It can show any of the viewer's memories as long as they know the date and the location, the time helps or the default is the strongest memory there. I thought you'd like it to remember your village or Iskander. Do you like it?" She stared at him and then nearly tackled him off the balcony in a hug. He hugged her back and said, "So that's a yes that you like it?"

She pulled back just enough to look at him and said, "Yes, thank you Carter." Then she kissed him.

When the kiss ended he just held her in a hug and whispered, "Merry Christmas Zia."

THE END

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