Thanks for reading and please do review

Olivia looked down into the eyes of the woman beneath her. She never really believed that the eyes were windows to the soul. Munch claimed that keeping eye contact with someone for too long was dangerous, that it was how the Pope controlled his cardinals, but Olivia had long ago learned to tune out his radical theories. She'd never had cause to doubt herself before but for a moment, a second really, Alex's eyes betrayed everything. It was as if that one comment had allowed her to feel what before she had to control. The grey irises, tinged with blue Olivia now saw, spoke of a tiredness beyond the physical, a pain and confusion that she didn't know how to heal.

And then the moment was gone. The eyes fell flat once again and the emotion drained from Alex's face. Neither of them moved, their anger seemingly spent till Olivia picked them both up and removed Alex's sword. When the blond made no move to resist she gently undressed her of all her metal till, like in dungeons, she stood in her white shirt and black breeches. Olivia suddenly became aware of her own nakedness and led them both back to the waterfall, leaving the armour where it lay. She was happy to see that the others had laid out her mattress and folded her clothes on the top. With one eye on Alex she dressed quickly in loose breeches and her trademark green tunic. She brought Alex to the back of the cave, where the sound of the water was quietest and tied her hands behind her back and her ankles together before helping her sit on the rock. Alex's eyes were still flat, still dead. She had the look of a man who had given all his cards to God. Who didn't know if he had a winning hand or not, didn't even know how to play the game but who was tired of playing and wanted to face his winnings or his debtors either way. Olivia had dealt with such people before, normally men who had gotten tired of running from the law but she knew that while Alex was placid now if you corner an animal you give it no choice but to attack. Alex was still the Black Cloak and she couldn't be underestimated.

'You've got to speak to me Alex' Olivia said, sitting down on the opposite side of the cave. With her legs extended the two woman's feet almost touched. 'The others will be getting back soon and I won't hide who you are from them. I have to give them a reason not to kill you on sight.'

Alex shrugged slightly and even in the gloom Olivia could see that the white of her shirt, now wet, hid nothing of her chest. 'What did you mean that I couldn't lose? And don't give me some bullshit cryptic answer this time Alex, I need an actual explanation.'

She watched as the blond leaned her head back against the rock, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Just when she was about to speak again, thinking that she had perhaps gone to sleep Alex started speaking in a low strained voice.

'When I was younger I had this nurse maid. She was the only person I really saw from before I could remember to like maybe nine.' Olivia didn't know where this was going or how it related to her question but decided to let Alex continue. 'She was like a mother to me, I'm not entirely sure what happened to her but before she left she used to tell me stories. At night before bed, or while we were washing she would fill my head full of tales of princesses and knights and of dragons and demons that would climb through the window at night but that I wasn't to be scared because angels would always protect me.' Alex fell silent before raising her head and opening her eyes to stare at Olivia. 'Do you think you're a good person?' she asked suddenly.

'Yes of course.'

'Are you sure, you've killed people. Gone to the Holy Land and stolen people's homes.'

'They stole our sacred city. Of course we have to get it back.'

'Would your Saracen friend agree with you?'

Olivia fell silent and Alex smiled slightly before continuing. 'I was just like you; sure that I was a good. When my father came and said that I was to train with a sword I knew that he wanted me to become a knight from the stories.' Her voice rose and the ghost of a smile lifted her lips, 'I was going to kill the dragons and do God's work, save the princess,' her voice trailed off and her mouth fell flat, 'but as time went on I started to doubt my part in the story. My father says there is no good or evil. There is only the world and what it has to give you and if it won't give it to you, you simply take it and some days I think he's right.' Her eyes were hard for a moment, a harsh look casting a shadow over her face before her jaw unclenched and again the emotion was gone. 'But others. Other's I hear of this woman who is helping the poor and saving the needy and doing it all without profit to herself and I think that perhaps there is good.' She paused for a moment before continuing. 'That's what I meant. The knight has to kill the dragon. The angel has to stop the demon or else what sort of fucked up story would it be.'

Alex turned her head to the side and Olivia sat in stunned silence, not sure how to answer what she had learned. But she needn't have thought for long for as if the dam had been opened Alex quickly turned back and this time with anger in her eyes started speaking again.

'But you see in all the stories I was told the knight never needed help. He never needed saving. You! You go and get yourself captured, too focused on that slut of a red head to spare a look behind you. So now I'm left having to clean up your mess but you can't even do that properly! How would it have looked if I'd had stood by as you escaped? I was going to chase you so it looked like I'd made the effort, let you get a few punches in to fool my father but no! You had to pull us into the river and down into this hell hole. Fuck I should have simply left you there, had my night…'

'Raped me you mean?' Olivia interrupted choosing to ignore Alex's anger and throw a few verbal punches of her own.

'I never raped you. You can't tell anybody something happened when it didn't just to suit your own perversions. I asked my father for a night to hear you scream before the rope cut off your vocal chords.'

'So that's what you were doing with your lips against mine, getting close to better hear the screams.'

Alex laughed but even to her it sounded fake, 'that was to scare you. You don't honestly think I want anything to do with you?'

They fell silent once again before Olivia spoke quietly, trying to reach beyond the mask of the Black Cloak and to the woman Alex was slowly letting her see. 'We get to choose our parts Alex. If you don't want to be the dragon, you can choose to be the knight.'

Alex looked up and the tired look was back in her eyes. 'They're just stories Olivia. For children. You're too old for them now. The only things that matter in this world, are the sword in your hand, the gold in your pocket and the obedience of the men around you.'

'That's not true, you said it yourself. Everyone matters to everyone else, everyone should work for everyone else. Your father's evil Alex. He only cares about himself, you may think you owe him something but you don't. You can still do the right thing.' Olivia felt her heart quicken when she saw a glimmer of hope in Alex's eyes but it was gone so fast she doubted whether it had been there at all.

'I made my choice. No one can undo time.'

Olivia watched as Alex curled up on her side, face to the wall, and after she didn't move for a few minutes she concluded that she had fallen asleep. She walked back out of the cave, picking up her bow and quiver as she went and sat down by the fire pit. She kept her body angled towards the waterfall in case Alex tried to leave. The sun had fully risen while they had been talking but it was still early morning and she knew if the others had travelled to the castle it would be some time before they got back, assuming they didn't travel using the river like she and Alex did.

She drank from the river and ate some bread from their store before building up the fire and warming her toes in front of the flames. She didn't understand who was in sleeping in the cave. One moment she was sure she looking into the eyes of the Black Cloak. The eyes of a person who believed that everything in the world was there simply to be taken; but the next moment she was looking at Alex; a woman who still, somewhere, believed in the duality of fairy stories.

Olivia didn't know what to do. She didn't believe in the law. Didn't believe that the men sat high in their castles had the right to decide what was right and what was wrong but there was something above those men. God's law, nature's law, whatever one chose to call it, it demanded that the Black Cloak die. For the three sons of Stephen Yarmouth, hung for poaching; for the countless burned homes in the middle of winter; for the crushed bones and stabbed backs the Black Cloak had to be made to answer.

Olivia knew that, believed that. The problem she had now was that after everything that had happened, everything she had learned, she was no longer sure if the Black Cloak had ever really existed.