Xaviers!

"I can and I must, for many reasons. They hold the emotional human side of me. They hated that I used it against them before so they bound it the first opportunity they could. I am crippled by it and I can not afford to be. Besides it serves no purpose at the moment and it changes nothing."

"But you do care for her. Don't pretend that you just stopped."

Vivi's eye changed and her skin rippled. "Fey choose their lovers in one of two ways, with great care or with none at all. She has had time, I have not. For now it is a hindrance, I do not have the luxury of drinking myself into a stupor night after night until the pain is manageable. I can not afford to be distracted."

"I need the part of you that isn't fey if we're going to pull this off."

Vivienne stared at Sam for a moment before the mask finally melted away. "Fine, damn you, open the bloody bottle."

"We're going to someone who's used to playing fairies like a fiddle," she says, getting up and picking up the bag.

"If we want to do this proper, let's go where Basil won't scold us."

She returned the book to its' secured location. "Sure, why not, you lead, I follow. The natural order of things."

"If you want to be cross with me, by all means." She says as she makes her way out onto the grounds.

"Oh well, since I have your permission then..."

"I prefer it. At least it's bloody honest."

"Just because I wasn't in some simpering ball of alcohol inducted self pity doesn't mean I wasn't being honest. I would have preferred to choose when and where to grieve on my own."

"No, pain and anger are useful if you know where to point them."

"It was, damn it. Now, it's directed at you, the one person I need most and the one person out of two I wish to never see again in whatever is left of whatever lifespan I have after this is done. Happy? Of course you are, you have everything."

"You want to just have it out instead of splitting a bottle of wine? Suits me fine."

"I didn't say that, I never said that and I don't think there's enough wine in the world that would make me stupid enough to try."

"Whoever she may or may not be doesn't mean she's not also Samantha McManus and perfectly slappable." Miriam comments, emerging from one of the racks with two books tucked under her arm. They're not quite from this section, which means she probably got lured over here by the heated debate.

"I wasn't..." She sighs.

"...you're not helping, Miriam."

The mask flew back into place. "You seem to have this miraculous ability to vex multiple people at once with your presence, Samantha."

"See? She gets it." Miriam says, at least vaguely amused by the situation, mainly because for once she seemed to have somebody else on the side of being annoyed by Sam. "And not everyone always has your weird compulsion to help everyone all the time." If she noticed Vivienne's change of appearance she doesn't let it on.

"She asked for my help," she says to Miriam.

"I did, her mutant skill and secondary nature will serve well."

"Not..." she starts and then changes her mind with a slight roll of her eyes. "Never mind. So you're on board of Team Morrigan as well?" she asks Vivienne, probably with a bit too much amusement in her voice for someone who currently has books about Nordic mythology under her arm, but irony never stopped Miriam before.

"Well Miriam, maybe I ought to introduce you to Vivienne. She happens to be the daughter of the Lady of the Lake."

Vivienne makes a low curtsy that hasn't seen the light of day since the Middle Age. " I believe her to be, though I can not in good conscious say I am "on her team". Either she is or she is not, for my needs, it matters little. If she is not, her likeness to the Morrigan is more than enough for me. If she is, she has and has always had my deepest respect and reverence. This however does not mean I like her very much at present."

"Pleased to meet you Vivienne. Loving the brutal honesty." Miriam is nothing if not appreciative of a good curtsy, outdated as it might be. "So what is it that you need the esteemed Morrigan's likeness for?" she asks, apparently having decided that arguing with Sam and Friends about the validity of all this is pointless and has moved on commenting on the ridiculousness of it all from inside the magical wonderland logic.

"To cause those who have power over me to think twice about commanding me to return through the Veil."

"I'm trying to help her out of a bind."

"Ah." Miriam nods although she doesn't really get the details. The sentiment is obvious enough though. "You have people who have their own ideas about how you should live your life." she says with bit of a frown.

"Precisely."

"And they're... magical rune fairies." To Miriam's credit, she is not actively trying to make it sound ridiculous, but unfortunately she's kind of a natural at dry sarcasm.

Vivienne blinked at Miriam a few times as her mind processed calling the Fey Lords the equivalent of "magical alphabet cats". "Fey with great power, unaligned, often referred to as the Grey Lords or the Grey Council if you wish not to be sexist. Also all faeries are fey, but not all fey are faeries and runes are a kin to the human alphabets. You just referred to the ruling class of an entire world and race as "magical alphabet cats"." She actually smiled.

"I assume they'd appreciate that as little as the House of Lords would, in which case I stand by what I said." she says with a slight smirk.

"They've sent her after her mum, because they're awful like that."

"There is that. True to Fey form, she has something they want."

"And I assume you told them to bugger off."

"Not an option. Yet."

"They are quite aware of my opinion of them, but they have lost most interest in me as one would to with an often tantruming child. They are simply waiting."

"So they want you to get something from your mum but they're not really minding you any business. What's the issue here?"

"I am not sure I can explain it to your satisfaction, their hold on me is not physical. If I willfully attempt to disobey their order, there will be pain, if I spend too much time as a human, there will be pain, if I take too long in my quest...there will be pain."

"But we think there might be a way out of that."