A Real Life Fairy Tale

"Look over yonder squire", said the King.  The squire raised his eyes off of the writing that he was meticulously attending to, looked out of the balcony facing the meadows that surrounded the castle and saw a sight that he had seen in times past.  Away off on the horizon was a tower surrounded by a moat.  It was a tower of  ominous dark stone brought in he knew from the far reaches of the kingdom.  The stone was blotched with mildew, vines, and tar which held the mortar in place.  The vines gave it a strangled sort of look which almost made it seem as if the tower was gasping for breath.  The water in the moat that surrounded it was of a black inky substance with splotches of green on the top.  There was life in the inky blackness, but it was the sort of life that one did not want to encounter for it was slimy and devious.  The eyes of that life, if you want to call it life, were beady, alert, waiting to devour anything that would have the courage to happen upon that place.  The squire shuddered at the sight that his sovereign bade him look at.  "Oh Sire, not in the least to be presumptuous, but I do not even care to gaze upon such a sight," replied the Squire.  "For I have set my gaze upon that tower many times before and the sight makes my heart shudder for the occupant.  It also reminds me that you are the wisest of all nobles, and I bow before you in fear and in love."

The King kind and loving placed his strong hand underneath the squires chin and lifted his eyes to his own.  "You are my most beloved servant.  You have been with me these long years and have observed my comings and my goings, my work among my people, and you have learned much," said the King.  "Sire, you alone took me from that tower over yonder, you alone held the key to the dungeon, for it was you who found me, and used the key to lock and to unlock.  I only shudder because I remember the agony my heart was in, in those dark days.  I bow before you, because of the liberation that you have granted me through that suffering.  Now, to serve you is the highest honor, and to serve you freely with no chains is out of a heart that longs for all to see the benevolence of my great King," said the squire with tears filling his eyes.  "Do not weep, rejoice.  For there are many in my kingdom that will see me as you see me today," said the King as he picked his servant up under his elbows and set him upright before him.  The squire asked about who it was in the tower that His majesty had asked him to look upon.  The King replied that it was she who had already served him faithfully for a great many years.  "Oh Sire," said the faithful squire and scribe as he gasped in disbelief, "I would never criticize your sovereign choices, for you alone know all things, but the one you speak of is gentle and kind to even a fault.  Surely you cannot mean her?"  "She has served me it is true, and I have chosen her for greater things.  She will pass the tests that I have for her, even though our enemy has asked permission to haunt her day and night," said the King.  "Sire and have you given, oh I cannot even speak his name, permission to be in on this test," asked the Squire.  "Yes, I have permitted him, but have given him strict parameters.  For she is suffering for the sake of others as well as herself.  Her family of old has not broken down the barriers between my Kingdom and the enemies camps.  I have chosen her alone to carry on the work.  That is why my gaze has never left the tower.  I have also chosen some very humble means to assist her in her fortress.  She has daily bread from my table, and when she has little strength to lift it to her mouth, I have chosen other servants of mine to guide her hand so that she might take in the sustenance and feel revived."  The squire asked the king who were the servants and he replied, that they were women from the House of Windsor, and the Lady of the Lake.  "Daily they make entreaties before my throne on her behalf, and take the bread that I give from my table here at the castle," said the King.  

Just then three women dressed in white satin, lace, and  brocade came down the path that leads from the tower.  They were talking softly as they made their way to the great gate that led into the inner courtyard of the Kings Castle.  They were there to gather up more bread and wine for the next meal.  Picking up the satin and lace of their gowns the squire noticed that they wore no shoes.  Their feet were beautiful, lily white it was almost like they shone luminously in the pale light of evening.  

The squire reflected on the times that these women each in their turn had spent time in the towers of their pasts, and how they could minister in ways that no one else could.  He recalled his own memories of living on the bread and wine of the King, and how day by day it had opened his eyes to the truth of his master.  His ministers would place daily salve in his eyes so that the scales that were, at first hard as dragon scales, slowly dissolved giving him the light that he needed.  He then looked forward to a time when there would be no more need of towers, vines, nor even salve, for the King had promised that there would be a time hence that the Kingdom would be complete.  He would then gather us all under his wings and we would live in a new Kingdom, where there would be no need for towers, keys, nor darkness.  It also made him recall the time when his master had seized the keys of the towers, had defeated his enemies and made his enemy writhe in the reality of his own defeat.  This enemy had once deceived our ancestors into rebelling against the King, we had chosen to rebel.   The King in turn had sacrificed his only Son, the Prince, in order to gain back the Keys that the enemy had taken.  The Prince only wishing to bring glory to his Father had willingly obeyed. 

The squire once again bowed before this magnificent King who with only love in his heart, and goodness for his beloved had and would make good come out of the  dark days of the tower.