Cloak had lived through countless eons, and had patiently endured the touch of innumerable suitors, her purpose—beyond the necessary work of protecting infinite realities from chaos and violence–always to find the One. The One she had been made for, the One who would finally couple with her, allowing her to fulfill her truest destiny. And she had always known that this long awaited One would need her just as desperately, to fulfill his own destiny; and when they came together at last, their pairing would bring salvation to many a world across the cosmos. At times she had grown cynical that her wait would be rewarded, and though she found temporary comfort in the sorcerers that made their way to her, that satisfaction was always incomplete and too short lived. Every fiber of her being yearned for the day when he—the One–would come, and tap into all the power she offered and finally, oh finally, end her lonely solitude and touch the part of her that ached to serve as much as be served in turn.

Through long periods of inactivity, she had waited, locked away in her glass cabinet, longing for the day promised her of old, wondering what form the One would ultimately take, certain she would recognize him (or her), from the moment he stood before her. In the rare dream, she would catch a fleeting hint, a delicious tease, a thrill of precognition—he is coming rest assured, the yang to your yin, the reason you came to be, the resolution of your true purpose, the answer to your loneliness. From such visions she knew he (or she; Cloak fully knew the sex mattered not) he was once a proud, haughty man, brilliant but cold to the needs of mankind; a man who had been broken through his own hubris and careless belief of invincibility, broken badly and reduced to a shell of himself. His soul will have been sorely tested, Cloak reminded herself again and again when the wait seemed interminable, but that was a necessity that would open his mind and heart to the infinite possibilities which they would explore together. She knew he would bear marks of this breaking, painful reminder of his foolishness, symbol of how much he could overcome should he have the courage. He would be the bravest of them all, when the world was at stake, surpassing any expectation he had ever had for himself. Cloak would be his helpmate and his mistress, and they would come to be inseparable.

And so Cloak yearned ceaselessly, and as she waited silently from behind her glass, she was certain when he finally stood before her, that they would recognize one another, just as lovers prematurely and long separated always do, when they come again into their own.

But Cloak could not have known, or even guessed, that these fancies were not entirely accurate…

(to be continued)