Melias heads back to the abbey, where Galahad has almost finished his lemonade.  “Guess who got maimed?” he asks, and gives Galahad the shield.

“Righty-ho,” says Galahad.  “Off I go!”

“Can I come, too?” asks Sir Uwaine, who is still around for some reason.

“Nope!  Just me and Melias!” replies Galahad, and they leave.

Galahad and Melias ride back to the mystery knight who maimed Sir Bagdemagus so effortlessly, and they have a conversation wherein the mystery knight lays out a bunch of Magic Shield Facts, many of which are at best tangentially related to the magic shield!

Magic Shield Fact #1: After Jesus died, Joseph of Arimethea and a bunch of his followers left Jerusalem and relocated to Sarras, home of the Saracens.

Magic Shield Fact #2: At the time, the king of the Saracens was named Tricky Tolleme, and he was at war with his cousin Evelake, also a king.

Magic Shield Fact #3: Joseph went to Evelake on the eve of a major battle and prophesied Evelake dying in battle due to not having been converted to Christianity, hint hint.

Magic Shield Fact #4: Evelake agrees to convert to Christianity and avert this prophecied doom, and has a magic shield struck, to commemorate the occasion; it’s this shield!  It maybe has a fragment of the cross Jesus died on embedded in it, perhaps!

Magic Shield Fact #5: During the battle the next day whenever Evelake started to have trouble he whipped out his new shield, which otherwise he kept under a sheet, and when his cousin’s army saw it, they had visions of Christ dying on the cross; this understandably freaked them out and ruined their morale.

Magic Shield Fact #6: One of Evelake’s soldiers, maimed in battle, touched the shield and was made whole!

Magic Shield Fact #7: After the battle Evelake was baptized and all his people were baptized and the shield miraculously vanished and Joseph moved to Britain.

Magic Shield Fact #8: In Britain Joseph was immediately arrested on some trumped-up charge, and he spent some time in prison before a local warlord Mondrames  showed up and freed him and everyone converted to Christianity, yay!

Magic Shield Fact #9: Then Joseph lay dying, and Evelake visited him and the magic shield reappeared somewhere along the way and Joseph had a bloody nose and the took his own blood and made the mark of a cross on the shield, ew.

Magic Shield Fact #10: Joseph instructed Evelake to keep the shield safe for when Galahad came for it, and then died without explaining who Galahad was.

Magic Shield Fact #11: Evelake was at a loss as to how to keep the shield safe, but at the suggestion of a passerby who may or may not have been Merlin, he sent it to Nacien.  Then Nacien founded a White Abbey and hid the shield in the basement!

Nacien!  The name on everyone’s lips!

“Wow,” says Melias as the mysterious white knight vanishes in a puff of narrative inconsistency.  “That’s quite a story.  You’re clearly very holy, Galahad.  Can I become your follower and also a knight?”

“Sure, why not?”  But before Galahad can knight Melias, there’s a rumble from the nearby abbey!