The companions buried Merlin deep beneath granite, with Nimue taking precautions—forcing a cursed serpentine stone into his mouth—to ensure he could not return. They recovered only a fragment of Collum's severed ring finger from the surf. Nimue preserved it in hopes Morgan might reattach it. Aboard the flying bronze caravel, the survivors—Collum, Nimue, Dinadan, Bedivere, Palomides, and Guinevere—sailed homeward toward Camelot, sharing fairy nectar and toasting the dead. Dinadan, whose secret was now exposed, expressed relief rather than distress.

Guinevere, holding Excalibur, sat apart, contemplating her coming reign. She acknowledged that Britain had become more complicated and that she would have to be a more complicated queen. The companions debated reforms, including whether to keep the Round Table and whether British should be spoken at court. Bedivere had already attached himself to Guinevere as her body man, as he had been Arthur's.

As they approached Camelot, a sea eagle landed on deck and transformed into Morgan le Fay, who insisted she had something to show them. Palomides, now Morgan's traveling companion, revealed his intention to write a book about his explorations and not return to Camelot until finished. Morgan examined Collum's finger but said it was too late to reattach; Collum tossed it overboard.

Morgan led them east to the coast, where they witnessed thousands of Saxons, Jutes, and Angles—not warriors, but families—arriving on countless boats. Morgan explained these were refugees fleeing rising seas and the Huns, not invaders to be repelled. She prophesied that nothing would stop them: Britons would be pushed west and called Wēalas (Welsh), the land would become Angle-land, then England, and the Saxons would eventually claim Arthur as their own hero. Morgan reminded them that Britons themselves had once arrived as refugees—everyone is a refugee from somewhere.

Confronted with this overwhelming change, Guinevere realized this, not she, was the transformation the fairies had foretold. She refused to relinquish Excalibur, swearing the companions to keep it among mortals; if the Lady of the Lake wanted it back, she could come fetch it herself. Collum resisted the pull of his old acedia, accepting that stories never end. Palomides turned the ship, and they sailed west into the sunset toward Camelot.