A few days later, Launcelot and Pellam and the rest of the inhabitants of Castle Corbin are having some lunch, when there’s a ruckus.  See, in Corbin they don’t have kitchens or cooks or anything, because the Grail is constantly providing awesome victuals!  While Launcelot doesn’t get to see the Grail again, he does get to eat the Grail-provided food, so that’s something.

Anyway.  Ruckus.  They’re just sitting down to eat when all the doors of the chamber suddenly fly shut, and lock themselves, and no one can get them open!  Pellam gets up to investigate while everyone else goes ahead and eats.  He has apparently seen this before, because once he establishes that the doors aren’t opening he calls out to the hallway beyond.

“Yo!  Hello?  Is there a knight out there who hasn’t done the Grail-Quest attunement chain?  That’s usually why these doors lock!”

“…Yeah!”  It’s Sir Ector the Lesser, Launcelot’s younger brother.

“Hold on,” Pellam tells him.  “Launcelot’s in here!”

“Seriously?  Dang it, I’m too late then.”  Ector explains about the vision that he and Gawaine had, back in Book XVI.  “I wanted to warn him or something?  But I guess it doesn’t matter now.”  Ector shakes his head sadly, mounts his horse (which was there in the hallway with him) and rides out of the castle.

Pellam goes back to the table and tells Launcelot that Ector was just there.  Launcelot sighs and says that since he’s been away from home for like a year, doing this Grail quest, he should probably head back.

Along the way home, Launcelot stops by King Bagdemagus’s tomb.  Why yes, it turns out King Bagdemagus, Knight of the Round Table and good buddy to King Arthur, has died!  Guess who killed him?  Here’s a hint: he’s killed a bunch of Knights of the Round Table already!  No, the answer isn’t heart disease, it’s Sir Gawaine!

For a moment Launcelot is filled with rage and the intent to hunt down Bagdemagus’s killer and avenge him.  But then he reads on the tomb that it was Sir Gawaine, and he’s like, enh, that happens.

When he arrives at Camelot, Launcelot is greeted like the hero he is!  Big party, massive feast.  The surviving Knights of the Round Table (roughly half of whom have died from Grail-quest-related or Sir-Gawaine-related injuries) toast him.

“Any news of Percivale, Galahad, or Bors?” asks Arthur, when he gets a moment alone with Launcelot.  Launcelot still has the letter he found on Magdalena’s body, which recaps most of their adventures.  Arthur reads that letter and marvels.  “Pretty crazy!  Now God would that they were all three here.  I’m really looking forward to them finishing the Grail quest and coming back.  Then this stupid Grail thing will be over and done with.”

“That shall never be,” replies Launcelot.  “I’m pretty sure Galahad and Percivale aren’t coming back to the secular world after their quest ends.  Bors should, though.”

“Well, Bors is pretty cool.”

“Yeah, he’s a good guy.”