So Melias rides along for a couple of days, looking for strange adventure.  Eventually he comes across a meadow in the middle of a forest, where a fantastic picnic lunch has been laid out, and also there’s a throne with a nice crown sitting on it.  No one is around, and Melias isn’t hungry, so he just takes the crown and leaves.

Big mistake, Melias!  For a magic knight appears out of nowhere and rides Melias down and lances him straight off his horse and into the dirt!  Then the magic knight takes the crown and puts it back, and Melias lies there bleeding to death.

Luckily for Melias, Galahad appears out of nowhere.  Malory refuses to explain this.  “Melias, Melias, Melias,” he says.  “I warned you, didn’t I?”

“Don’t lecture me, Galahad, please!”  Melias pitifully wiggles his limbs and moans.  “Get me out of these woods and under a roof, would you?”

“Sure, I was going to anyway,” says Galahad.  “But where’s the knight that stabbed you?”

The knight that stabbed Melias is, in fact, up a tree nearby.  “Boo!” he shouts, and jumps down.

“That’s the guy!” cries Melias, totally unnecessarily.

“Okay, guy, we’re going to joust now,” announces Galahad, and he mounts up and waits until the other knight mounts up and then they ride at one another and Galahad dehorses the magic knight so hard his spear breaks.

Then the magic knight cheats! A duplicate but uninjured magic knight comes out of the tree and tries to drive Galahad back from the first magic knight’s body.  Galahad, though, slices this second magic knight’s sword-arm off, and then both iterations of the magic knight flee.

Galahad pulls the broken spear out of Sir Melias, and blood gushes forth, and the Galahad prays over him asking God to go ahead and let Melias die if that happens to be Divine providence, but if God would rather Melias survive that would be awesome.

Just then a guy shows up…

“A guy?” I ask Malory.  “Like, a monk?  Or a knight?”

“Shut up,” Malory explains.  “An old monk who had sometime been a knight.  It doesn’t matter.”

“Is this the same guy who was Nacien’s emissary before?  Maybe Nacien himself?”

“Sure.  Whatever.  Shut up.”

Just then Nacien shows up.  “Ho,” he says.  “I shall use my secret hermit powers to heal your man Melias, good Sir Galahad!”

“Cool.”

“It’ll take him about seven weeks to recover fully.”

“Oh ah.”  Galahad wasn’t really planning on dropping out of the quest for a full seven weeks.  Three days, maybe?  Galahad will stick around for three days, just to see Melias through the worst of it.

“Thanks, Galahad,” says Melias.