It should be something good, anyway. We don't have too many more years before he's too old for toys.

I suppose so. He might not grow up quite as quickly as we did.

We should do the whole thing properly next year. Decorations and the feast and everything. Maybe even – well, probably not in Isarn. But some day. 

All right, we will. We'll make it happen.

Élie finishes his kaleidescope and has enough beads left over to make a rattle for the baby. 

We exchange gifts just after sundown, so I think we've got a bit of time yet. 

Well, is there anything we're meant do for the morning and afternoon? I'm not actually sure what time it is outside, but I expect Rahim will be up soon.

Really there ought to be a fair to go to, or a concert or something. I could show them illusion-pictures, I suppose? But that seems a bit sad.

I bet Rahim will like it, if you seem excited and not sad about it. He doesn't know what the real thing is supposed to be like, he can't miss it. And I'm curious what it's meant to look like, too.

When he wakes up, then. Oh, and I'll make crêpes, we always had crêpes for breakfast Crystalhue morning. 

I'll look forward to it. Let me know if you need me to take the baby back beforehand.

She's going to be working on sewing her hand puppet up for a bit longer. Eventually Rahim stirs, hops on the bed, and asks her what she's making. It's meant to be a dragon puppet, and she tells him so. He hasn't got his wings just yet.

Rahim can see his present when it's finished. In the meantime, does he want to see what a Crystalhue fair looks like in Isarn?

"What's a Crystalhue fair?"

"Do you remember going to the Sunwrought festival in Sothis last year?"

"With the kites?"

"Yes! And music and dancing and markets with people selling all sorts of thing?"

"Selling things is good, too."

"I see what comes of raising a child in an Abadaran temple! Anyway, it's a little like that."

"How do we see it?"

"This year, it will have to be by illusion-picture."

Rahim likes illusion pictures! Although his favorite is the one with the boats. Will this one have boats?

It can if he likes! Some people like to make boats out of paper or wood to float their Zon-zon dolls down the river Sellen at the end of the night. 

"What's a zon-zon doll?"