Galahad and Melias stayed overnight in the abbey. In the morning Galahad finally knighted Melias. This is when Malory reveals his name and the fact that he was the Prince of Denmark.

“You’d better be a good knight,” warned Galahad. “Royal blood and all; it’s a lot to live up to.”

“Ain’t no thing! But listen, now that I’m a knight, do me one reasonable favor, okay?”

“Sure.”

“I know you wouldn’t let Sir Uwaine travel with you, but let me. We’ll hunt the Holy Grail together, until a strange adventure transpires in which we’re irrevocably separated.”

“Enh, okay.” Galahad figured whatever would be, would be.

Unfortunately for Sir Melias, the Galahad-Melias teamup ended almost as soon as it began! Malory tells us that come Monday morning, Galahad and Melias rode out from the White abbey together. Only a few hundred yards out down the road they came to a mysterious fork, which hadn’t been there before. A new mysterious signpost pointed out the two different possible paths.

On the signpost, in Merlin’s handwriting, were written letters of gold: Now ye knights errant, the which goeth to seek knights adventurous, see here two ways; that one way defendeth thee that thou ne go that way, for he shall not go out of the way again but if he be a good man an a worthy knight; and if thou go on the left hand, thou shalt not lightly there win prowess, for thou shalt in this way be soon assayed.

Merlin was not one for brevity. He could have just written “strange adventures ho! Right for a test of virtue, left for a test of jousting ability,” but no.

Melias volunteered to go the jousting route, which he figured he was better-suited for than the other way. Galahad actually tried to talk him out of it, but Melias insisted. And so they parted ways.

Sir Melias rode along for a couple of days, looking for strange adventure. Eventually he stumbled across an incredible picnic spread, laid out in a meadow in the middle of a forest. The picnic area included, as so many do, a throne with a nice crown sitting on it. No one was around, and Melias wasn’t hungry, so he just took the crown and left.

Big mistake, Melias! For a magic knight appeared out of nowhere and rode Melias down and lanced him straight off his horse and into the dirt! Then the magic knight seized the crown and returned it to the throne, while Melias lay there bleeding to death.

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

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

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

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

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

“Okay, guy, we’re going to joust now,” announced Galahad. He mounted up and waits until the other knight mounts up. Then they rode at one another and Galahad dehorsed the magic knight so hard his spear broke.

Then the magic knight cheated! A duplicate but uninjured magic knight leaped out of the tree and tried to drive Galahad back from the first magic knight’s body. Galahad, though, sliced this second magic knight’s sword-arm off, and then both iterations of the magic knight fled.

Galahad pulled the broken spear out of Sir Melias, and blood gushed forth. Galahad prayed over him, asking God to go ahead and let Melias die if that happened to be Divine providence, but if God would have rather Melias survived that would be awesome.

Just then a guy showed 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?”

“Sure. Whatever. Shut up.”

Just then Nacien’s emissary showed up. “Ho, knights,” he said. “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 hadn’t really planned on dropping out of the Grail Quest for a full seven weeks. Three days, maybe? Galahad would stick around for three days, just to see Melias through the worst of it.

“Thanks, Galahad,” said Melias. It was more than he could have asked for, really.