“How did you get that gun in here!?” Evelyn cried, hoping she was loud enough to attract a cop. “This is a courthouse!” But, for some reason, the sound felt strange, like an almost mystical force was preventing her voice from bouncing farther than a few feet.

Evelyn was a biologist, and had never before considered mysticism once in her life, and yet her mind knew that this wasn't science at work. An instinct awoke deep in her consciousness, and like a bird under a cat's paw, Evelyn accepted that she was fully powerless against her abductor.

“And how did you trick my little Emyr?” The woman asked, in a thick French accent. “He is a Knight!”

“What?” Evelyn asked slowly. The strange woman leaned back into a chair, still pointing the gun at Evelyn's throat. “He's American, dummy, he can't be Knighted!”

“Silly girl. You were always a stupid silly girl.” The lioness told her.

“Who are you?”

“The woman he was supposed to marry, you silly girl!” She shouted. “I am Lady Sophie Wren!" Lady Wren leaned forward, her eyes focused and wide. "I will kill you if you go near my Emyr again!”

Evelyn slowly lifted up her hands so Sophie wouldn’t shoot. There wasn't a moment in their courtship—a year-long relationship—that there was any sign of another woman, especially the living opposite of everything that William was to Evelyn. Instead of fine culture, fine wine, golfing on Saturdays, and a corner office, this pallid woman was covered in odd necklaces and symbols; a sinuous knife hanging on Sophie's side reflected the light of the window into her eyes.

“I'll only explain this to you once. And I only do it so you'll stay away from him!” Sophie told her squarely.

“Yes, Please! Please explain to me why he's leaving me!” Evelyn hissed, braver than she thought she could. “Because he apparently can't bother me with an explanation!”

Sophie stopped to sigh into her pistol.

“Have you ever...read the story of King Arthur's court?” Sophie asked.

Evelyn paused, about to say something rude, when she noticed again the gun in Sophie's hand and bit her lip.

“You are right, he's not really a Knight, not in this country. Knights of the American Chapter are...peculiar.” Sophie smiled slowly.

“American Chapter?”

“You are thinking of those medieval Knights prancing about looking for saintly bodies and their dinnerware, but we're looking for something...better.”

“So...which church are you guys a part of?” Evelyn wondered as she absently readjusted her blonde hair into her tight bun.

“No religion at all! Let me tell the story.” Sophie hissed. “I have to tell it right or it won't make any sense when I kill you.”

“Kill me?”

“Well...I'm not supposed to say this to people that can live to tell about it.”