When Holtz finally learned Ronan's story, he devoutly wished he didn't. The singing had subsided for some time, and now it was left to quiet talking in corners, savoring of mildly alcoholic drinks, and the usual winding down of the evening. It had been a long time since Holtz had been in such company. He could not believe how relaxing it was... or how much he'd missed it. The new world was so harsh, so alien. This world, even if it was a world he wasn't used to, was more like his home than anything had been recently.

He was so relaxed, in fact, that he didn't notice the blonde man come through the door until it was too late. At least, that was the impression he got. He was the last to leap to his feet. By the time everyone else had moved, Rose had pushed past everyone to glare blue daggers at the man. Ronan had almost immediately dived behind her and Morgan (why Morgan? it occured to him to wonder). The three siblings ranged themselves along the room, blocking what was not already blocked by Morgan and her father, and Rose. Everyone else... well, few of them seemed to know what was going on, but half of them appeared to be reaching for concealed daggers or something. It was the other half that worried Holtz.

"Colin." Rose said quietly. "I did not invite you."

Holtz felt the temperature in the room drop substantially.

"I know..." the blond man said hesitantly. "I...."

Rose flicked her fingers slightly, Holtz wasn't sure he'd've seen it if he hadn't been watching her intently. One of the brothers whose name Holtz vaguely remembered as Walter moved up to one side of the blonde man, his sister moving up to the other side.

"Yes?" Rose said mildly as if nothing had happened.

"I... I thought. Since it is the time of the season. I would..." The man... Colin... didn't seem to know what he meant to say. Rose stared at him, patient and inevitable. He kept stammering.

"Colin." Rose interrupted him after perhaps five minutes of this. "Colin of White Reach. What do you want?" Her voice had taken on a note of authority and her stance ... well. She looked like a queen, to Holtz's eye.

Evidently the others thought so too; there was a wave of resisted kneeling and bowing around the room. Oddly enough, it did not have the same effect on the strange man. He straightened up, as though addressing an equal. "Lady Rose. In the spirit of the season I have come to offer my amends for past slights and sins against members of your gathering. If I am not welcome I shall, of course, leave."

Rose glanced at Ronan and Morgan. The latter nodded within a minute, but the former stared at Colin as though he wasn't sure whether or not to run or attack the blonde man with his bare hands. At last he nodded.

"Say what you wish to say, then go." Rose said finally. "You were not invited, and your presence may make some of my guests... nervous." As if to underscore this statement both the man, Walter, and the woman idly juggled the throwing knife that suddenly appeared in each of their hands. Holtz suppressed a smile. He was familiar with that sort of nervousness.

Colin didn't appear to take it too badly either. He bowed slightly to Rose. "As you say." He turned to Ronan, who ducked further behind Morgan. Holtz suddenly felt sorry for the man; he looked genuinely terrified, like a boy who had been hit by his father too long. Holtz had seen a few of those in his lifetime, and it never failed to instill in him a desire to beat the father until he was writhing on the ground and bloody. He looked at Conal and suddenly many things began to clear up for him. The redhead and the fair man looked nothing alike, physically, but they shared a sort of look or stance that indicated a shared history. Father and son perhaps, not in fact but in emotion. He didn't realize he'd stepped forward until Rose was in front of him, holding a hand to his chest to gently bar his way.

Conal glanced at him, then at Ronan, and then he began. "I have been traveling, often, since your people and mine ceased to be at war with each other. I have been thinking, and... though my thoughts have not often been comfortable for me, they have left me with several certainties. The foremost among them being... I have wronged several people I cared for."

Ronan looked skeptical, and Conal actually flinched slightly. Holtz relaxed, and Rose dropped her arm. The knives disappeared. "I ... did not exactly admit to actually caring. Most especially when it was not politic to do so. But..." he sighed, and seemed to struggle with his words. Holtz became even more confused as to what exactly was going on here. "I was bound by my position as a ruler and the positions I had put myself in, to a great extent. In some ways, I think, I was bound by them more than I might have been, through decisions I made less wisely than I might have made them. I did, truly, care... and I should not, in any circumstance, have acted as I did. And now..." he sighed. "I am most deeply regretful."

Holtz stared. Ronan stared, still hiding slightly behind Morgan but more out in the open than he had been. Rose was smiling slightly, and most of the others were doing their level best not to appear interested in the conversation.

"Morgan..." he turned to the woman. "I made you an offer, once, a long, long time ago. You and your father. The offer will always remain open, but... I understand that now, you are not exactly inclined to take it. I only wish... things could have worked out better. It took me far too long to realize what I wanted, and by the time I was old enough to know I was too old and had made too many mistakes to have it."

Conal sighed. Everyone who was involved in the conversation was staring at him with some mixture of confusion or amazement except for Rose, who was smiling with a peculiar, small, satisfied smile.

"Conal..." Ronan stepped forward, and then back again as the blonde man turned his attention to him. Everyone looked at the redhead, which made him shrink back even more. He mumbled something that might have been 'thank you.'

"A chara...." Conal began. Rose shook her head.

"You have said what you came to say, Conal of White Reach. Anything more, I think, would be overweening. But we thank you for your words. They will be much appreciated, in the spirit of the season." She swept a low curtsey.

The blonde man bowed, turned, and left. Morgan and Ronan embraced, and stepped aside to talk with her father about what had happened. Rose smiled a bit more and turned back to the rest of her guests. Holtz was left with the distinctly disturbing feeling that something very important had happened, and he had no idea what.

* * *

Holtz did not even want to guess at what time it was when the small party had finally disbanded. He was the last guest to leave, having remained in an out of the way corner until everyone had gone. He was starting to figure out what was happening, and he wasn't sure if it added up to something good or bad. He had also remembered a dream that he hadn't realized up until now was significant. He glanced up at the mantle, where a vase held a single black rose. At the beginning of the evening it had held many.

"I'm afraid we don't have rooms prepared, so if you're planning to stay the night..." Holtz looked up, startled. Rose was standing there, smiling slightly.

"This isn't real, is it?" he asked softly. The minute he asked, he knew he had been right. Her face fell, and she looked towards the ground and nodded.

"Not as you might think." She looked up, gestured around the room. "The place is real enough. It is my ... ancestral estate, I suppose. And yes, the people were real. Conal," she grimaced. "Much though I might wish he were one of my mildly bad dreams, is real."

"Then I have not... have I?" He wasn't sure what to think anymore. He had thought the people, the clothing, had all been conjured up.

"Have you...?"

"Been brought back in time?" She stared at him, wide-eyed, for a second. Then she broke into bell-like peals of laughter which left him confused, puzzled, and even faintly annoyed. He didn't like being laughed at. "What's so funny?"

"Brought back in time." Rose chuckled and shook her head. "No, that would take more power than even I have. No, you have not been brought back in time. Simply... across a few thousand miles of land and ocean. And no, we would not normally gather in this sort of fashion, but..."

"But... what?" Holtz stared at her suspiciously.

She sighed, stood up and looked around. For the first time that night she looked... sad. Very, deeply sad. Holtz blinked. He hadn't expected this sort of reaction. "I had hoped that this would be a sort of... Christmas present. Returning you to familiar surroundings. Taking the pressure off of you for an evening."

Holtz was touched. A bit unnerved, but touched. "Why?"

Rose shrugged slightly, turned and looked at him so intently that he had to look away. "Because no one should be alone at Christmas."

Holtz was standing before he realized what he meant to do, standing next to her before he realized that was where he meant to go. Despite everything that had happened in the last nine years of his awareness, he was not so far gone that he did not realize what she had done for him, and said so. "Thank you," he said simply.

Rose smiled, and in that moment the room suddenly seemed brighter to him, the night seemed that much more successful and pleasent. She embraced him softly, kissing him briefly on the cheek. "You are very welcome." Walking slightly past him and reaching out, she plucked the last rose from the mantle. "And you had better go home now, before you are missed."

They both knew who she was talking about. Holtz scowled slightly; he didn't like the demon, he didn't like the demon's methods, and he needed to do something about both of them, soon. He took the rose from her, his expression softening. "It was you, wasn't it. That night."

She nodded, not bothering to ask what he meant. "I meant what I said then. And I hope you take my words to heart now."

He nodded slowly. "I will... try." He took the rose.

"You know what to do if you need me."

He nodded. "I know." He moved towards the doorway.

"Daniel."

He turned.

"Be careful."

He smiled slightly. "Merry Christmas, Rose. God be with you."