After collecting a sufficient sampling of scraps and finding the wind-up toy that had been used as the core of the animation spell, I left the bulk of the cleanup to the elves. They politely but strongly refused my offer to help, insisting that they could easily handle the mess on their own and that my efforts were better put elsewhere. They were always far too particular with how things were organized to let an outsider do the physical work, but they knew me well enough to at least appreciate the offer.

“So, what happens now?” Maguire asked. We were standing in a little workshop space the Clauses set aside for whenever they had guests in my line of work. “And why does it feel like someone turned the hospitality off?”

“Because they did. This room is about as mundane as it gets and that is very intentional. The hospitality is great, don’t get me wrong, but it tends to muddy other magics which makes diagnosing problems difficult. It’s still safe, of course. Still has wards and protections in place. If it's too uncomfortable for you, I can handle the testing on my own. Just be sure to leave the samples on that table.”

“No, it's fine. I can handle it, and I want to help. You’ve got me curious to see how your stuff works.”

“In that case, pull up a seat and let's get to work.”

While Maguire pulled over a chair, I focused on arranging my tools and setting up additional protections just in case one of my tests went awry. One could never be too careful with magic and enchantments.

“I am going to start with the bits that were animated first,” I explained. “That way I can get a feeling for the nature of the magic behind this and the rules that it follows. You may not know this, but there are countless types and sources out there and they all abide by different rules. I have worked with a lot of these in my line of work, so I have experience figuring them out and I know that it is best to start with the effect before going to the source.”

“I suppose that makes sense. Figure out what you are dealing with before you really have to deal with it.”

“Exactly! Now, I may need an extra set of hands for some of this but if you are interested, I can explain as I go.”

“Please do, if only to satisfy my own curiosity. It may prove useful as well.”

I spent the next few hours carefully combing through the bits and pieces we had recovered, talking Maguire through what I was doing and why. He asked a lot of good questions, catching on quickly and occasionally forcing me to think outside of the box when it came to how I explained things. He had some good insights too.

“So, it's a trickster of some sort,” Maguire commented.

“Yep, and it's not malevolent, so that’s good. It is a little more focused than your average mischief maker, though. Until we know what the end goal is, we are going to need to play our cards carefully. Things can escalate if they get spooked or cornered, but once we figure out where it’s from, we can find a way to remove or redirect the trickster.”

“Now that we know some of the what, we can narrow it down by taking a closer look at the core.”

“Precisely,” I said. “Any prodding may wake it up, but that is why we disenchanted the samples and are working in a room that is magically cut off from the rest of the Pole. It can try to animate the pieces it interacted with before, but it is going to have a very hard time doing so.”

“What do you need me to do?”

“You can start with tracing these runes in as perfect of a circle as you can manage on the table.” I opened the book to the appropriate page and indicated the design, also drawing his attention to the note scrawled beneath it. I hadn’t done this particular variation of the ritual before, but I had done others that were similar, so I felt comfortable letting him handle the setup. Plus, the enchantment would probably kick up a fuss the second it realized what we were doing.

Maguire indicated when it was time for me to put the object in the circle so he could complete it, and the second my hands made contact I could feel the magic reaching out. It would not be going down without a fight, but it didn’t have much to fight with.

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It did manage to tighten some of the threads in my clothing before I set it down. It was a strange sensation, but it only took me a few seconds to straighten them out.

“Alright now, let’s see what we are dealing with,” I said, reaching in my bag for my magnifying glass. Before I could take a look at the enchantment, though, the door burst open.

“Come quick! Something has taken the sleigh!” the young elf cried, in too much of a tizzy to notice the strangeness of the room or the fact they were interrupting something.

“The sleigh? Are you certain?” Maguire asked, glancing at me.

“It must have been taken in all of the chaos of rounding up the reindeer, but the bay is empty, and the sleigh is nowhere to be found.”

“I guess we will have to continue this lesson later. The circle should keep the enchantment well contained, but just in case I am miscalculating, I have some alarms I can set up that will alert me if something happens,” I said. Maguire nodded as I tucked the magnifying glass back into my bag and pulled out an assortment of literal bells and metaphorical whistles. The other elf who had yet to introduce himself merely watched in anxious curiosity as I arranged them around the room. “Alright. Take us to the stables. I needed to investigate there anyway.”

I hadn’t seen the North Pole in such a tizzy in quite some time, but with everything going on, it was to be expected. Things were not going according to plan in one of the most crucial times of the year and now the sleigh was missing.

The thing that took the longest was calming down the elves enough to organize a search party to find the missing sleigh. A few hours later and the trail we had went cold, causing the worry to settle in once more.

“What are we going to do? We can’t have Christmas without the sleigh!” one of the younger elves cried.

“It's going to be okay. Worse comes to worse, we have enough time to find another solution, but it’s not going to come to that. I need you all to take a deep breath and trust me. We will find it,” I said firmly. That took some of the worry away, but it didn’t erase it completely. I didn’t let them see it, but I was starting to worry too. Something strange was at work here and it was up to me to figure it out and stop it before it could ruin Christmas.

One problem at a time, I reminded myself. I fished around in my bag for something that could help and pulled out my spyglass. It was beautiful and ornate and old. Some said it looked like I had stolen it from a movie set, which was true, but I would never admit that. One of the actors had it on their wall for ‘inspiration’ and no one noticed when I switched it out for a very convincing replica. I didn’t feel bad about it either. They had no need for its magic and better for it to end up in my hands than the hands of an actual thief, I told Santa when he challenged me about it not long after. He reluctantly accepted my explanation, and now, he was going to see why it was the right choice.

I raised the spyglass to my eye and did a slow sweep of the surrounding area, catching hints of things but nothing particularly clear. I closed my eyes and did it again, keeping my hands steady and following my instincts.

“Found it,” I said. “Behind a hill just outside of the village proper but still well within the Pole. I see no signs of traps and it appears to be intact. I have no idea how it got all the way out there, but it should be simple enough to get it back.”

Half the elves were gone by the time I finished talking, rushing off in the direction I indicated to retrieve the sleigh.

“Should we go with them?” Maguire asked.

“No. If there was any danger, I’d be able to tell and at best we’d just get in their way. Let’s take another look around the stables, just in case there are any clues left after all that chaos. I didn’t catch anything the first go round, but sometimes it pays to double check.”

“Right this way, then.”

We gave the stables a thorough search and found nothing of use. Then we went back to the workshop to check on the one piece of evidence we still had left to investigate.

I knew the second I walked into the room that something was wrong. Something had changed.

“What’s wrong?” Maguire asked when he noticed the look on my face.

“Either the enchantment wore off or the one who cast it, dismissed it. I have a few tricks up my sleeve to bring part of it back, but they will all take time to prepare. We may as well call it a day. We learned a lot, we saved the sleigh, and now we need to rest so we can get back to this problem tomorrow.”

“That makes sense, though I wish we could keep working on it today. I don’t like leaving things unfinished.”

“Me either, but there is only so much we can do, and I don’t know about you, but I am starving.”

“Would you like an escort back to the main house?” he offered.

“No thanks. I think I will join the elves for dinner tonight and revisit the Claus home when I have more answers.”

“In that case, allow me to escort you to the dining hall. I am sure there are plenty of people who will be very excited to see you.”

I locked the door behind us and tried to use the promise of friendly conversation to push down the mounting nerves. The picture being painted was concerning, but I could not yet pinpoint if that was a problem or not. Perhaps with dinner would come answers and with answers would come clarity.

Either way, I had a lot of research in my future, and while Maguire was proving to be an excellent assistant, I still chose to keep some things to myself.

Like the fact that something had broken the salt circle without triggering any of my alarms, which was no easy feat.