Xaviers!

Gemma plops two baskets of laundry onto the floor in front of Sam and Tereza's room, knocking on the door. None of the laundry is folded, but it all appears to be Sam and Tereza's.

Sam blinks muzzily.

"...in a second!"

She groggily gets up and hastily throws a bathrobe on.

Tereza may be rubbing off on her a bit.

Opening the door, she looks to Gemma, then to the baskets.

"Good... morning?"

"Morning," Gemma says, "Brought your laundry up from the laundry room. Where would you like me to leave it?"

"I thought I told you that you wouldn't have to do laundry?"

"I didn't," she says. "Well, not totally. I didn't fold it."

"Do you... want to do laundry?" She asks, still confused.

"I'm just looking for something to do," she says, seeming a little startled.

"I'm not angry with you, just baffled."

"Something better to do, then?"

"If you have something, I'm listening."

"I'll admit, I wasn't expecting you to launch into laundry just to scratch that itch. Is this going to be a thing?"

"I have to hold up my end of the contract," she says. "So... maybe?"

"Hnnh. And we already ruled out most of the actual fun things."

"I could start you on your sword lessons, but I thought you'd like a break after recent events."

"Honestly, if there's something I need right now it's... well, I wish I could bloody figure out how to help Will."

"What's going on with Will?"

"He must've heard me coming when I stepped out during the celebration. I don't know how stealthy he can be with half a church bell riveted to his chest, but he's definitely avoiding me."

"It's about the illusion we were trapped in. He... didn't want it to end."

"That's... strange. Although what you were trapped in was much more pleasant than what we were trapped in, from my understanding at least."

"I guess it was... a home. Something safe where he didn't have to fight so hard and..."

"...and he had me. Three of me."

"Ah. Well, you do seem to have people gravitating towards you, so that's not entirely surprising. Are you sure you don't have some water nymph in your ancestry?"

"There's something he's not telling me."

"Okay, there's probably a lot he's not telling me. But he told Tereza it was more than just wanting to... serve me."

“I would wager he wants to be happy, like most mortals. If he was happy with you, then I could see him wanting to hang on to that happiness.”

"I know, aye? He just seems determined to... I'm not sure how to put it. Punish himself for that?"

"Well, he described himself to me as the Fulacht na Morrigna. It's possible he considers what he did to be a serious betrayal of his office. As a rule, betrayals are not something anyone associated with the fey take lightly. And like it or not, you are, at least in descriptive, associated with the fey."

"Nnh. More shite I have to approach by putting on the big scarypants."

"You don't like the role."

"It's not that I don't... I've... well, I've just had to lean on it rather heavily lately."

"Lean on it or lean into it?"

"More the former I should think, given having to act in my official capacity."

"So you're not accepting the role, just using it," Gemma comments. "That may be part of the problem."

"I don't really have a choice in it, do I? This isn't something I auditioned for. I didn't hand in my CV. It just... comes out sometimes."

"You always have a choice," Gemma states. "You're only out of choices when you're bound by pact."

"So you think I should let myself be the Morrigan more?"

"It seems to cause problems as often as not."

"I'm saying that as long as you try to play both Samantha and the Morrigan, you'll never be happy with either. And neither will those that look to one or the other for assistance. Look at it this way, would you want your consort..." She gestures towards the bed where Tereza is still sleeping, "... to separate wolf from woman? Or is it healthier for her to blend the two?"

"...no. She does better when they're both going in the same direction," she admits.

"I'm not saying it's easy. It's not easy being lady-in-waiting and bodyguard."

"I'm already more... blurred than I was before. It doesn't feel wrong, but it does feel like it's... at odds with a lot of things."

"But the opposite is true as well, if I'm honest."

"At odds how?"

"Well she's not very... modern, is she?"

"Isn't she? Humans haven't changed *that* much. Only the tools of their squabbling have changed." Gemma looks thoughtful for a moment, "Fey have a hard time changing. That's not to say it can't be done, but we very much are what we are. Mortals are creative and resourceful and always have been. It's one of the reasons that the Grey Lords are so jealous of them. The Morrigan has her roles and her... proclivities for certain, but she sees the benefit in the mortals. She had to have or she would have left with the rest of the fey, don't you think?"

"Maybe my mistake is that I keep ending up with people who feel the need to remind me of what she was."