The Forger of the Flame
A Story About the Mighty Power of the Humble
by Mark Edgemon

In the bowels of the castle dark worked a master of iron and steel who forged armour and weapons, toiling day and night, providing the finest weapons in the world for the knights who defended the kingdom. He worked alone, often to the point of exhaustion, to meet the number set by the king.

It was a hard job, but he had been doing it for forty years.

He was like a father to the knights who would often talk with him as they brought their swords and shields for repair.

The forger of the flame would teach them about truth and valor and about the greater war we all fight within ourselves. They truly loved him.

Although a seemingly insignificant person in the scheme of things, he cared for the knights and the people they protected, which made him important to them.

When a knight was killed in battle, he grieved. When someone in the kingdom was hungry, he took them food, even if he did not have enough for himself. When a child was born to a knight or squire, he was there. He was the godfather to four hundred and seventy-five children, many of which were currently knights themselves.

The king, however, was becoming increasingly erratic, making his subjects more on edge when they were around him. The minister of war was secretly steeping certain herbs with the king’s tea, known to cause mental instability.

The minister of war had a preoccupation with death and suffering. He loved to watch people suffer because it was in their pain that he felt alive. He planned on ruling the kingdom after the king lost his mind.

The forger of the flame knew what was happening and he could not be silent. He had to speak out. He knew he could be charged with treason. But sometimes in a man’s life one has to put himself in harm’s way for righteousness sake. So he did the only thing he could do…he prayed.

Meanwhile, the minister of war charged the forger of the flame with being a spy and ordered him arrested.

The knights who were given the orders to arrest him were the forger’s godchildren and were unsure what to do.

And then…a moment of clarity. The knights arrested the minster of war and confined him to the dungeon until an investigation could be launched.

The head bishop of the church discovered the herbs the minister of war had been using and turned them over to the kingdom’s physician who developed a remedy to heal the king and restore him to his former health.

Afterwards, the minister of war was executed by the order of the king.

The king was entirely ungrateful for what the forger of the flame had done to save him and the kingdom from the wicked clutches of the evil minister of war. He wasn’t even mindful of the risk the forger of the flame took to restore the kingdom back into the king’s hands. The king ordered the forger back to the armory to continue making swords, shields and armour for his kingdom.

The forger just collected his pay and retired to the southside of the kingdom. He bought a farm and began to build himself a house. He didn’t have much money, cause he was never payed very much, but he believed strongly in God’s provision and planned to live off prayer.

As he began to chop down his first tree, which he would use for lumber, he could see coming over the hill what appeared to be a crowd of people coming toward his home site. Actually, it was thousands of people made up of knights of the realm, their wives, their children, people from the village, the bishop and his congregation, all coming to help the forger of the flame build his home and start a new life. The people helped him build his home and gave of their possessions until his home was furnished.

During any night of the week, dozens of people would be at the forger’s home, singing, dancing, eating and just being happy.

The king began to lose the loyality of his subjects, but continued to rule them with little influence until he died a few years later.

The forger continued to instruct his extended family of thousands, until he died many decades later. His teachings continued to instruct the good folks of the kingdom long after his death as they were handed down from one generation to another.

It could be said that the day the forger of the flame stood against evil for righteousness' sake, that the power of the kingdom shifted that day, from the castle, to a little farm just south of it.

THE END