Okay, the song for this chapter was originally going to be "I'm Gettin Nuttin for Christmas" by Relient K (because that would totally be Tom XD), but the song I posted with this chapter, "What a Glorious Night" by Sidewalk Prophets, is my absolute favorite this year. ^.^ Skip ahead to ~1:05 if you don't want the reading of the Christmas story from Luke and just want to get to the song. If you're not a Christmas song person, I challenge you to listen to this and not jam out.

How has it been 12 days since I posted a chapter? ;-; Thank you all for sticking around. As you all know, I've been struggling with writing the past few weeks. *still struggling with many things* I hate to say it, but probably don't expect more than a chapter a week at most until I finish figuring out the plot between here and the finale.

*Waglington's POV*

Visiting Sonja, Thaumsworth, and the cats had been great. Sonja about had a heart attack from "such cute omg" when all the cats ran up to greet me with excited meows, acting like I was an old friend they never thought they'd see again—which truthfully, they hadn't. Memento had been introduced and seemed to hit it off with the smaller cats, and he had taken a liking to Thaumsworth immediately. The cats were now taking turns pouncing at and chasing each other across the basement at lightning speed, skidding on the wooden floor. Memento was enjoying himself so much I found myself grinning too.

"Really, Wag, you didn't have to bring me all this," Sonja pointed at the large bag of magical odds and ends I'd brought with me. I had promised myself to bring her more supplies to make her magic stabilizing soap. It felt nice to keep a promise for a change.

"I insist, Sonja. I used up most of your soap when Thaumsworth was taking care of me." She still didn't seem convinced. I knew some of the resources I'd brought were a bit rare and valuable; I tried a different approach. "Besides, I don't plan on doing any Thaumcraft research for a long while; these resources are just taking up space in my chests. You're actually helping me by taking them off my hands."

"Well, okay, if they're really in the way..."

"Great! Well, I'd better get going. It's late. Thank you for the catnip, Sonjeev," I emphasized the nickname I'd given her as I mentally called for Memento. The other cats were sad to see us go and insisted that we come visit again soon. I listened in on Memento's mind to hear what they were saying. Now that I was human again, I couldn't understand what they said otherwise.

Oh! Speaking of not understanding... "Sonja, before I forget, Thaumsworth is a bit of a telepath. If you hear him trying to talk to you, it's not one of the voices." Sonja stared at me in shock, no doubt wondering how I knew about the voices to begin with.

Moments later her eyes shot to her golem across the room. Judging by Thaumsworth's signature "not grin", he'd said something along the lines of "I told you so," and Sonja had actually listened.

I think Sonja owes Thaumsworth a lot of hats after this, Memento thought with a snicker as we climbed the staircase out of Sonja's basement.

Oh, of course, I agreed. Those two have a lot of catching up to do.

Reaching the top of the stairs, I slowed my pace; Memento wouldn't have to trot to keep up with me now. He wouldn't say it, but I knew his leg was bothering him again. He had been playing a little too hard with the others. He settled into a walk next to me and shot me a brief feeling of gratitude. As I opened Sonja's front door I affectionately ruffled the fur on his head—knowing it would bother him. He grumbled but seemed too tired to make a witty comeback. Note to self: A tired Memento is a less snarky Memento.

I heard that.

I chuckled before picking my disgruntled friend up and flying up the cliff face of my mountain which was less than a stone's throw from Sonja's front door. I didn't mind her building so close to my tower; we had plenty of space despite the additions both of us had made to our homes over our months here.

The stars dotting the black sky above us offered little light to see by. I must have lost track of days with everything going on. Is it a new moon already? Thankfully I knew every inch of the terrain around my tower. I'd had to scale it without flight magic many times before. I didn't care to count the times a creeper or skeleton had knocked me off one of the cliffs in my early days here. That's how I'd first discovered I had respawn. Thankfully we reached the base of my tower without any such incident.

I set Memento down and summoned my orange white mage light; I wanted to see to not trip over anything. There was still a bit of cleaning to be done later. For now, I had important things to do before Martha found me. "Okay, boy, what do you think we'll need for a search and rescue mission?" I asked while walking to the elevator.

An hour or two later, I had finished packing everything I could possibly need and enough food to last Memento, a hungry farmer, and I for a month. I gazed on the closed bag with satisfaction. Even better than being finished with packing was the knowledge that I could leave first thing in the morning, thus avoiding any awkward conversations with Martha until I returned. A few weeks should be enough time for me to get over her, right?

I was about to turn in for the night when I heard a beep from my communicator. Looks like I have a message. Opening it, I saw it was from Tucker. "Wag, can you come by my place a.s.a.p.? It's important."

I quickly typed that I was on my way and started out my front door before I realized my grey shadow wasn't with me. "Memento?" I called softly, looking into the other ground floor rooms. Ah, now that's just cute, I grinned as I spotted him. He was sleeping on the back of the leather sofa in my rarely used living room. He was curled up with his fluffy tail covering his face. I decided to let him rest.

I quietly headed outside and closed the door behind me. The wind had picked up again and nearly knocked me over with a gust as I stepped to the cliff directly in front of my tower. Waiting for a lull in the wind, I took off. I wonder what Tucker needs me for? Maybe he found something out from Mianite about the void, but he could have just called me. Why have me come over to his dojo?

I didn't have long to ponder it. The flight was pretty quick with the fitful wind at my back. I almost crashed into one of Tucker's silverwood trees landing in the unpredictable weather. Strangely, the courtyard was lit, but the lights were off in Tucker's home. Suspicion crept into my mind, and I decided to listen to it, given what happened in the jungle when I didn't. I pulled my spell book from my robes and clutched it tightly in my left hand, muttering the words for my nether banishing spell. I held the readied glowing red spell in my right hand and cautiously moved toward Tucker's front door, glancing around the courtyard trying to figure out what was making me so uneasy.

"Tucker?" I called, knocking on the front door with my glowing hand.

"Come in," I heard my friend yell from within. I took one last anxious look behind me at the empty yard and opened the door. "Hey, can you flip the light switch, Wag? I blew a fuse, but I think I have it fixed now."

"Sure," I called back. I let my nether spell dissipate before reaching to flip the switch on the panel by the door. I should have kept the spell readied.

Bright light and multiple people screaming "Surprise!" assaulted my senses. I really hated surprises. None of my friends had known that, but now they did. (Again, check out Wag's FNAF videos to see just how badly he handles jump scares, poor guy.) Apparently me screaming and falling to the ground was hilarious. I disagreed.

After my panicked tunnel vision lifted I looked around to see everyone here. Looking from their laughing faces to the room, I could tell they'd spent considerable time cleaning and decorating. Holly and red and green lights draped the walls, and a seven foot tall spruce stood to one side of the entry with boxes of yet to be used decorations sitting next to it. The disco room looked to have finally been finished, with flashing multicolored lights shining out of the back room into the entryway. Had Tom and Tucker been trying to keep me away from Dagrun on purpose earlier to give the others time to set up?

"Welcome back, Wag! We didn't scare you too badly did we?" Tom Syndicate laughed as he and Jordan walked over to give me a hand up. Both wore wide grins. I noticed that Jordan's hair was nearly as messy as Tom's now, but smeared with red and green icing and sprinkles instead of spider silk.

"That was well played, as much as I don't appreciate it," I managed as my friends pulled me to my feet. Well, there goes my life. Now that Tom knows my weakness I'm doomed. At least he doesn't know about how much I hate spiders, I thought as I dusted myself off. "What exactly is all this for?"

"You, you sausage! This is your welcome back party," Tom said with a big grin.

"Well, now that the guest of honor is here," Tucker got everyone's attention with a clap of his hands. "Let the feast begin!"

Happy chatter and laughter consumed the ground floor as people started filing over to the elevator against the right wall. I guess this feast is upstairs. Tom, Jordan, and I were the last ones up. This room was decked out too, but less flashy. Cuts of pine and holly were laid between the dishes on the oak dining table, mixing a refreshing piney scent with the mouth-watering fragrance of cooked food. Candles large and small and a few potted poinsettias acted as centerpieces. Is it getting to be that time of year already? I hadn't even thought about the holidays with all the drama that had been happening lately.

Moving on from the festive decorations, I ogled the food on the table. Sonja had to have made most of this, but when? Her place didn't smell like she'd been cooking when I went to visit, and there was no way she could have made this much food in the few hours after I left. There was a pot roast, for goodness sake! That alone would have taken nearly 12 hours to bake. Turkey, fried cod, sweet potato dumplings, green bean casserole, and half a dozen other dishes I'd never seen before were spread along the main table. The wall next to the elevator had the dessert table: bread pudding, fudge, sugar cookies (that had clearly been decorated by the Ianitas, somewhat explaining Jordan's appearance), ice cream, peach cobbler, and apple pie. My stomach growled at the very thought of trying a bite of everything.

Tucker had saved me a seat next to him at the head of the table, closest to the desserts and elevator. Martha started to head towards the open seat to my left, but Tom jumped into the spot, pretending not to notice her. He instantly started in on telling us a much embellished rendition of how he had been the first one to find Fyre HQ when we set up shop in the Realm of Mianite. He was speaking fast enough that Martha couldn't get a word in edgewise, and I mouthed "I'll talk to you later" over Tom's shoulder with an apologetic grin.

Martha sighed and nodded before finding a seat between Donella and Declan further down the table. Even if I didn't want to talk to her just then, I did feel a little bad for sticking her with those two. Donella tended to be no fun at social gatherings, from my limited experience in Laenadur. Dec would most definitely be wasted before the night was over (along with most of my friends), and he was certainly... interesting when he was drunk.

Everyone else was seated and started passing platters and dishes of food around the table. My brothers were sitting on the other side of Tom and the apprentices beyond them. Sonja sat next to Tucker. Jordan, Donella, Martha, Dec, and Champwan sat past her. Mot had the other end of the table between Champwan and Echo.

I returned my attention to Tom's story as he finished with leading the others to our complex, emphasizing how amazed they'd all been while he was "totally chill". I decided to interrupt his shameless and inaccurate boasting. "Tom, you're forgetting about how you literally jumped up and down and squealed like Ianita when Phil levitated a torch, and you asked him to do it again. I don't think I've ever met a mortal more astounded by our magic. You were quite entertaining." (Literally Tom's reaction to a sidewalk magician in one of his vlogs; I'm not even exaggerating. Check it out if you want to laugh.)

Jordan, Sonja, and Tucker laughed while Tom sank lower in his chair, blush showing slightly through his green skin. "Bloody wizard know-it-all."

That only made us laugh harder; my brothers started laughing and joined in on the banter too. "We did have a lot of fun, didn't we?" Matt asked, rubbing a flaming tear from one eye.

"Yes, you all did ask for some interesting builds," Tom (my brother) acceded. "Whose idea was it to make that infernal musical doorbell? I still can't get that song out of my head."

"Why you gotta be so darude? It took me a whole night to figure out the timing and tuning for that thing," I countered, trying not to laugh. That poor doorbell only lasted a day before someone blew it up.

My friends and brothers kept laughing as platters of food were passed. Talking slowed slightly as people dug in. A pitcher was passed to me after the first few plates. I appeared to be the last one to get it, but they had left just enough for me to fill my glass. I took a deep breath of the sweet and spicy steam coming off the brew. Ah, wassail; no wonder everyone is in such a good mood already. My brothers must have brought this from their cellar.

"A toast to the fine wizards who provided our booze," Tucker affirmed my guess, raising his glass high.

"Here, here," was the chorused answer. The apprentices, Donella, and Martha appeared to be the only ones refraining or at least taking it easy on the surprisingly potent brew. I was holding back a little myself. I wanted to be able to fly in the morning without face planting into another tree.

"We probably should have warned the mortals before giving them any of your wassail," I whispered to my brothers, noting that the boisterous Priest's face was already turning red.

"Oh hush. Let them have their fun," Phil said, waving off my minor concern. "They deserve it after how worried they all were about you."

"Here, Wag, have some of this," Sonja prodded as she handed me a plate. I grabbed a piece of whatever it was without looking and took a bite. I froze and my red eyes shot wide the second I tasted garlic. I barely remembered my manners and grabbed my napkin to spit the piece of garlic bread out at once. I chugged the rest of my mulled cider to drown out the awful taste.

"Sonjeev!" I coughed. "Are you trying to poison me?!" Sonja grinned and held her hand out to Tucker.

"He bet me I couldn't get you to eat garlic," Sonja claimed innocently. "Now pay up, Tucker."

"But he didn't eat it; he spat it back out!" Tucker argued. I turned to the conversation Tom and my brothers had started while the couple bickered about who owed whom a diamond.

"Dude, you all make the best builds! Remember when I had you bottle Sparklez's ship?"

Tom (my brother) swiped a hand across his face at the memory. "How could I forget? I never want to work with an all glass build again as long as I live."

"Yeah, he made me do all the glasswork for the saltshaker lighthouse after that," Phil said with a grin.

Tucker's laugh interrupted us, and we glanced over at him. "Yo, that was the best build ever! It was even funnier when you moved it to Jordan's place. I didn't know he could be more salty than me."

Jordan did not seem amused at first, but then he lightened up and laughed along with Tucker and the others.

"Personally, my favorite was spookifying Jerry's Tree," Matt chimed in. Jordan and I both shuddered at the thought of the gigantic spider Matt had hung from the branches.

"So do all of you have something you can't stand to build?" Sonja asked, having noted my and Tom's reactions.

"Oh, if you want to set Philly off, just ask him about space gardens," Matt replied. (Reference: FyreUK's Minecon 2015 Panel video, during the discussion of their space port build)

"Matt, no! Don't you dare, or I'll tell them what you hate most," Phil hastily threatened. Matt heeded the warning and sat there grinning smugly as he ate. He had managed to get a reaction out of his most collected brother, after all. That was an accomplishment.

Oh, I've missed this. I really should spend more time with my family when all this is over, I mused as I left the table to refill my glass from a pitcher of water set on the dessert table.

As I rejoined my friends, Tom brought up something I didn't remember. It must have been before I came to their corner of Mianite. "What about that maze Tucker made? It wasn't wizard work, sure, but it was still pretty good." Jordan seemed just as confused as I was. I keep forgetting he was the outsider of the group before me.

Sonja however was irritated by whatever memory the maze represented and let the guys know it. "I still can't believe you did that. You had me kill a snowman! That was just cruel."

"Come on, Sonj. It was all in fun," Tom chuckled.

"At least I stole Marlin instead of kill—oops," Sonja's eyes went wide at her slip. I watched, completely lost, as Jordan, Tucker, and Tom stared at Sonja in shock.

"Wait! That was you?!" Tom exclaimed.

"I thought Death took Marlin?" Jordan asked.

"Sonja, what did you do?" Tucker eyed his girlfriend.

"Ummmm. I may have done a job or two for Death back in the day..."

Death? Why does that sound familiar? I wracked my brain while the others interrogated Sonja. Finally I remembered the book on the Shadow Wars I'd picked up back before my brothers and I went to the desert. My memory of the story was a bit fuzzy. Death had been either a general in the army of Shadows or had been the leader of the Shadows if I recalled rightly. You know, I think Kay packed that book with the others from my library when everyone came over. I wonder if it survived the scroll incident? I mentally filed that away to investigate later and refocused on enjoying this rare time with my family and friends.