I wept and wailed for nine days over my brother Llenlleawg's grave before the holy sisters at Clonfert pulled me from my knees. For nine more days I refused to take food or sleep. In the nine days following I did naught but pray. On the third ninth day my brother, with Íosa's crown of thorns upon his head, appeared before me. In his hand he wielded the legendary blade, Caledfwlch, the sword of Britain's High King, to whom my brother swore allegiance and became champion. It was no ghostly vision of the blade but the actual gleaming glaive, lustrous and mighty.

With its finely crafted hilt held out to me, my brother bid me swear upon it, as he had done when he first became a Knight of the fabled Round Table. Word for word I pledged my troth, the Latin promise finding meaning in my heart while strange to my tongue. The cold grip grew warm in my hand as my oath was made, and the purpose of my life suddenly became clear. No longer would I remain cloistered within Clonfert's walls. My brother, from the Otherworld, came to me to reveal my destiny. "Britain bleeds," said he, "and she will not heal herself. I may not fail Arthur if I can send him you."

"I with bleed with Britain," I answered him, passing my palm across Caledfwlch's keenly honed edge, "and answer Arthur's call as you have done, Brother." The last tear I will ever cry for Llenlleawg fell upon my bleeding palm that day. The pool my tear and blood formed in my cupped hand caught the sunlight and shone back the figure of a chalice, an omen I've yet to make sense of. I looked up to see that both my brother and Caledfwlch had vanished.

Today I sit at the at the bow of a coracle, with Brother Brendan and his crew at my command. They take me to Dyfed, a destination known best to us by the pirates that have made our island infamous. But Dyfed is only the beginning of my journey. I will make myself a gift to the High King of Britain and show him then how formidable a warrior and virtuous a Christian woman he has in his service. Only then will I find myself at the Round Table.