I know! I'm slow! I'm sorry! I'm bad! I really did have some personal things come up, but it's summer now, hooray! Hopefully I'll be able to get over this stupid funk and start writing like crazy! The rest of "Marriage," apparently, wants to be written backwards. It's very distracting.

Anyway, here you are! More microfics! Lots of dark, bitter, depressing ones woven into the light ones. Blame the people who gave me the words that woke up my whump muse. It's their fault, though I'm sure they regret giving me the words as well. Tell me which ones you like, and which ones tickle your fancy for maybe something larger. Really, I love these books more than is good for me. I need an intervention.

1. Resurrection

Gawain blinked at the sudden light and the sudden realization that the pain he'd lived with for the last few weeks was completely gone. He didn't know what dying felt like, but he was sure this was what came after.

2. Joy

After getting over his initial indignation about sworn to a fool's motley for a year, Rhience felt almost relieved. He wasn't a good knight, or a good priest—but he was good at laughing. It couldn't be too hard to bring that laughter to others—could it?

3. Valor

Despite all the other things he'd been wrong about, Lancelot was sure he knew what bravery was. Then Sarah took him across the edge of a sword.

4. Blade

The snakes were made of enchanted star-metal, the dagger tempered in a murderer's blood. The forger's red-stained fingers used it for ritual slaughter before the apprentice's soft hands used it to cut the mistress' throat. It lay largely unused until picked up by her son, with strong, calloused hands, as he left for Camelot.

But it was in the small, capable hands of the man's squire that the blade found its purpose.

5. Sting

Dinadan was a Poet above all, and sometimes felt the need to write more truth than people were willing to hear. He caused contention among the older and stuffier courtiers and often had to leave court a few weeks after certain performances. He always came back before his audience was ready, but his triumphant returning songs took the hurt out of his more cutting melodies.

After Piers began taking lessons from his father, his mother dismantled his once-beloved scarlet hat and sewed the cloth into the lining of his favorite tunic. "Never forget where you come from," she told him with a smile.

7. Tease

The people of Orkney were thrilled when Gaheris returned to steward the land, and even more thrilled that he'd married, but the new couple was not what anyone expected. It took months for their subjects to get used to a love that began with insults, and even longer to get used to it.

8. Pessimist

Gawain was an optimist. Gaheris was a realist. Gareth was a pessimist. Agravaine was an idealist. Mordred was an opportunist. And there were bits of their cynical mother in all of them.

9. Lofty

It did not take long for the people of Orkney to realize their new lady was a sorceress. It took even less time before ambitious stories of her awesome power were whispered to children at bedtime.

10. Breeze

The breeze blowing from Barham Down carried the stench of death straight down to the sea for weeks.

11. Flight

Terence was grateful to Morgan for never rubbing it in that the first time the Duke of Avalon saw her, he fled in terror.

12. Halcyon

The best of times, Dinadan recalled one winter, huddled with Palomides and Guinglain for warmth, were the times when the greats returned from their quests and the feasting had ended, and a dreamy, perfect calm settled over Camelot.

13. Fey

Some people underestimated her loyalties or personality, but no one underestimated her abilities. There was a reason she was called Morgan le Fey.

14. Eternity

When faced with all of forever to spend together, the years of separation Gawain and Lorie endured suddenly seemed worth it.

15. Feather

Feathers were all the rage in France for exactly one year and one year only. The parade knights embraced this whole-heartedly for one week and one week only. There were some things that were just too ridiculous, even for Griflet.

16. Mountain

Gaheris firmly believed that the delighted, awed look on Lynet's face the first time he brought her to see the Highlands was well worth the long walk, aching feet, getting lost, and bickering along the journey there.

17. Fight

Mordred's men expected docile Ladies of Court, as was the queen. For the most part, that's what they found. But the short, redheaded woman they discovered with Guinevere was more trouble to them than she was worth. While some subdued the screaming, struggling queen, the others fought with a gentlewoman determined to scratch out their eyes, to defend her queen to the last.

18. Roar

...She had some experience with fighting, something else the Horsemen weren't expecting. She disarmed one of the younger, greener knights and fought them with his sword, cold fury in her eyes.

Had there been fewer men, she may have succeeded. Half the company smuggled the queen out of the room while the rest overwhelmed her. A wound to her thigh brought her down, snarling in anger, roaring in pain.

19. Door

…The men ran before the woman could pull herself back onto her feet, barring the door behind them. She was still awake when they set the room on fire.

20. Splendour

Robin Goodfellow was not barred from the glory of Avalon after the closing of the gates, but he wasn't necessarily freely allowed in, either. Only Ganscotter knew just what and who the little imp was and what he was capable of—powerful enough to lend his charms to a world without magic and no so powerful that he was hampered by the lack of enchantment.

21. Duty

…And so, he stayed in England, as there was still work to be done. Because he could, because he was one of the very few left who could. He did the chores of deserving people and brought them luck, and played jokes on both deserving and not. Sometimes he met a person with bits of Avalon still in their blood, and gave them Words. The end of one story isn't the end of them all.

22. Bitter

…He did miss home. More than he dared to admit when he popped back for orders or a visit. He missed the beauty of the Island, and all the people in it, and he knew Terence hated it when Robin looked at him as if he were a ghost. He was never bitter. He loved his work. He just wished he could afford to do less of it.

23. Far Away

…After all his stories were told, he retook his old position of messenger to the other Other Worlds, both the open and the closed. Far from home and close by. Elysium, Yggdrasil, Tír na nÓg, Babylon, El Dorado—anywhere there was a gathering of magical creatures waiting for their time to reappear. Other Worlders never forget their own, no matter how different they may have appeared.

24. Lamppost

…Though the strangest world Robin remembered visiting was one he fell into by accident, one he never knew existed, with some kind of iron tree at the entrance. He left quickly, not willing to go trekking in places a faery with limited magic may not be safe.

25. Water

…But even destiny could not keep him out forever. Always, between trips, he returned through the rivers into home. Though his visits were brief and few, Avalon always called him back.

26. Brick

It wasn't fine stone or high towers that made Camelot great, Arthur thought as he smiled over the parapets. It was the hearts of her people.

27. Barren

Morgause smiled at the wasteland before her, lifting her face to drink in the burning red sun. The blood sun, some of the other Unseelie folk called it, cowering in their holes. Avalon was not the only court The Enchantress had tried to destroy.

28. Flat

Journeying over flat desert lands was easier than any other terrain, but deuce take it if it wasn't the hottest, driest, most boring thing Dinadan had ever done.

29. Rainstorm

Ariel was young, and her inexperience usually excused her from trouble. But when she accidentally held rain over Ganscotter's palace for three days while attempting a simple binding spell, even she couldn't get out of punishment.

Not that Ganscotter minded. He just laughed as Nimue scolded her daughter. And Merlin, though he couldn't show it, was thrilled.

30. Thanks

It was a day or two after escaping Castle Wirral before dark bruises formed under Terence's ears and the back of his neck where the chef had gripped or beat him. Gawain noticed with a deep frown, imagining more such bruises covering his best friend's chest and arms when the squire winced at odd movements. He didn't acknowledge them, however. He simply sent the boy fishing instead of working, next time they made camp.

31. Hole

Lancelot gently teased Sarah on their way back to Camelot, that such an able young woman could defeat a man in combat and fall victim to a wrenched ankle for not seeing a hole.

Gently teased, mind. She could be quite terrifying when roused.

32. Memory

Two years since Gawain left to die. He'd been all but forgotten, and Kai's heart ached as he leaned over the letter of a continental lord coming to stay a few months in Camelot. Some flunkey had written a note at the bottom, Sir Gawain's old chambers will do. He blinked rapidly and wrote the note that would put the lord in the opposite tower. If Arthur could hope, so could he.

33. Soaked

The downside of traveling between worlds was how wet you were bound to be once you'd come to the other side.

34. Fish

Fish that had been clooved before roasting tasted somehow better than the uncleft sort.

35. Journal

The first year of his reign, Arthur documented ever decision he ever made, pouring over what worked and what went wrong, determined to be the best ruler possible. Eight months in he started writing less and thinking more, embracing his natural leadership ability. He didn't even notice when Merlin threw the book away.

36. Listen

After the closing of the gates, Luneta's powers diminished over time—but her inner ear just grew stronger.

37. World

Sometimes Gaheris felt restless and talked about traveling the world. Lynet simply sighed and said if he could defeat her in a sword fight, he could go questing with his brother.

He tried, but never could manage it. He insisted she was getting secret lessons from someone. Lynet never had the heart to tell him the only lesson she received was in how to properly hold the blade.

38. Respect

Certainly Terence never got the respect or recognition he deserved while in England, but he did get the kind he wanted. Very few knights there were who underestimated the squire who had the king's ear.

The lords were another story.

39. Trouble

…A stern look or angry word from Kai was usually enough to keep the more troublesome lords at bay. No one wanted the brother and seneschal of the king unhappy with them, no matter how irritating certain squires became. But if Kai wasn't watching, Terence could find himself with more of a workload than he could handle in a day—or, occasionally, a few painful new bruises.

40. See

…Odd things happened to nobility who made themselves nuisances to Terence—like being tripped down hallways or misplacing valuable things or being haunted. The squire made out like he didn't notice either his troubles or theirs, though he sometimes could be spotted telling off empty corners after bad episodes.

The tricky part for all was making sure Arthur never noticed—or worse, Gawain.

41. Cover

Lynet despaired over her daughter's needlepoint skills and eventually stopped scolding her use of magic to make the more difficult pieces. Magic made the most colorful tapestries and warmest blankets, anyway.

42. Swear

Gawain swore worst and most often when he felt helpless.

43. Needles

"Stinging nettles by the back door, my dear?" Gaheris asked, showing his wife his red, burning arm.

She hummed. "Next time you try to sneak off and do something knightly and stupid, it'll be a sticker bush fence."

44. Fallen

The only thing better than a hero is a fallen idol, Lancelot thought bitterly, watching his former "friends" mutter behind their hands at how much he'd changed and how he was somehow lacking after his years away from court. He was bitter for them, not for himself. He intended to make more worthy friends now.

45. Rest

As much as he loved being with his subjects and knights, sometimes even kings needed an evening to himself, Guinevere, and occasionally the company of just a few good friends.

46. Magnificent

Arthur had never seen a more beautiful and powerful sight in all his few years than that of the sword sheathed in stone. Had he not been in such a hurry to pull it out, he might have admired it more.

47. Vainglorious

Griflet made Gawain redefine, for the hundredth time, what made a hero.

48. Gigue

One of the most ridiculous things the people of Orkney ever saw was their Lord and Lady, Lynet six months with child and both of them covered in mud, dancing in the courtyard after a long day of planting just because some knight who was clearly awful at being a knight had stopped for a visit and brought his rebec and performed his hello.

49. Laugh

The sound of Arthur's laughter was always welcome and wonderful, but grew rarer as the king grew older. Kai welcomed Mordred more eagerly than he should have because the lad brought Arthur's laughter back.

But Kai's mirth died with Bedivere and Arthur's with Mordred's betrayal. No man ever hated another so much as Kai did his nephew.

50. Pavement

Centuries passed. Roads of rough-hewn stone gave way to concrete and asphalt. There came generations who never gave thought to the rich and blood-washed history of their beautiful island, never cared about the dust of the dead buried under their feet.

But the stories were never forgotten.