"I've been expecting you," said Glassary when the man entered the room. She did not turn round to see the small man with hat and folded umbrella, and she had never set eyes on him before. However, somehow she just knew that the person joining her in the holy room was the man the Ambassador had said would arrive. The man who would come like a ghost, unobserved by the security systems of the embassy, on the night of the full north moon.
The Doctor walked forward to the covered body she was facing and slowly lifted the regal blanket. Though the cloth had covered an adult humanoid form, what lay underneath was a storm of clouds, encased in an invisible body.
The Doctor removed the blanket fully and stepped back, unalarmed.
For a moment they watched in silence as the embryonic cloud entity morphed from behind the transparent cocoon. The clouds were dark and angry, with flashes of lightning occasionally illuminating them from within.
"You removed his armour suit, I see," the Doctor finally said.
"He requested that he be placed like this," replied Glassary, retaining an air of integrity despite the unnatural sight before her.
Silence returned for a moment. The Doctor looked at her; at the long fair hair greying gracefully from years of responsibility; at the natural ridge in her head that stood out like a tiara. "You do realise that your Ambassador is dying." he pointed out.
He needn't have. Glassary paused before responding. "The body is a vessel one uses to sail across the sea; the gulf that exists between birth and death. It is a time of sleeping in ignorance, where faith is all that we can know of what lies before or beyond."
"All that we know?" repeated the Doctor. "So you too are one that is sleeping in ignorance?"
Glassary looked into the Doctor's eyes and held his gaze for a moment. Deep blue eyes like still waters, but no sign of mockery in them. "You listen well, Doctor." she said, evenly. "But faith is not a matter of facts and figures. Nor is it materialistic or communicative. It is a state of mind, a covenant of trust one shares with everything that is capable of it. Intelligence does not come into the equation. If anything, it only serves to get in the way."
The sound of muffled thunder rumbled from within the cocoon. Glassary smiled sadly at the sound of it. "I wonder if this is what the Ambassador was referring to." she said. "He used an old Earth cliché sometimes, talking of the dark and stormy night that was to come. I did not realise he was talking physiologically. His dark and stormy night. I assume from your title, Doctor, that you are here to help."
The Doctor walked a short distance from her before turning to face the cocoon; his umbrella handle at his chin. "On the contrary." he said. "I am here to bear witness to the Ambassador's death." His profile was momentarily washed by a flash of lightning from within the cocoon. "At his request."
***
The Ambassador was in telepathic communication with the Council, the rulers of the people that he represented in this universe. His people had no physical form, and previously had no interest in the physical universe other than scientific curiosity. But now the Council was populated by new rulers.
"There is nothing to be gained in securing domination of a physical universe," the Ambassador pleaded. "We have and need no physical bodies in our own universe, so why do you suddenly want our people to spill over into a physical time and space where we would?"
"Your place is not to question," came the reply. "We are a newly elected Council, and your duty is to serve the elected Council. We demand you serve us physically now to use your corporeal manifestation as a gateway for our defence force."
"You mean attack force." corrected the Ambassador, disapprovingly.
***
"He is the only one of his kind in this universe." said Glassary. "He has been totally alone for a millennium, ever since he set out from his own plane of existence." She looked at the increasingly violent storm inside the cocoon. "Is he afraid?"
"We all have things we fear." replied the Doctor calmly. "For me it is a vortex spilling wells, or a Tardis ringing bells."
"I wish I could be of some service to him now in his hour of need."
The Doctor did not respond, but merely continued staring into the storm, as if he could influence its outcome.
***
"We will not allow you to prevent our invasion by terminating your own existence." the Council told their old Ambassador. "If necessary we will burn out your mind and pass through your physical manifestation regardless. Let us use you as a gateway or be swept aside, Ambassador."
"Even with your combined psychic abilities you cannot flood the mind of myself and a Time Lord."
"No mere physical entity can stand in our way."
"The creatures in this universe are far more than mere physical entities. Each one exists as we do, and so deserves to retain their space to continue living out their lives."
"That is not for discussion." came the dismissive response.
With one last effort, the Ambassador drew the strength necessary to crush his own mind, thus extinguishing his body completely.
There was nothing left.
***
Glassary stopped outside the door, willing to let the Doctor make his own way home, from wherever he had come to carry out his fatal duties.
The full moon had been obscured behind heavy clouds.
"Perhaps evil follows you, Doctor," she said, unwilling for the parting to be fully amicable.
The Doctor murmured his agreement. "And it's taken me a good few lives to realise it."
"Lives?" quizzed Glassary. "How many?"
"I'm on my seventh now; but it's not like reincarnation ..." His voice trailed off as he witnessed Glassary's shocked reaction.
"The seventh stranger." she whispered, her voice dry with anxiety. "The Ambassador's prophecy ..."
"Prophecy?!" The question was lightly asked, as if he knew the answer.
Glassary composed herself before quoting.
The Doctor raised the handle of his brolly to his chin; his eyes shadowed by the brim of his hat. "Indeed." he said quietly, before walking off into the gathering dusk.
Glassary watched him go before speaking her thoughts aloud. "So now I know who you are, Doctor," she said. "You are the dark and stormy knight."
Lightning forked across the wide sky for an instant; and the thunder rolled in its wake.
