Ephemera — Indrodar And Death
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At the start of his second year of searching, Indrodar cut a second line on his forearm, rubbing it with charcoal dust and woad to make it scar, and he spent three days and three nights alone, eating nothing, drinking only water, lamenting his Queen. On the third night he woke to a pain in his arm and by feeling the scar he learned that it had moved, and what had been two lines running like chariot tracks was two crossing, in the Death Rune.
In his puzzlement he wondered if he had cut it that way, but as Yelm dawned he saw the colour under his skin was where he had rubbed it, and only the scar had moved, and he knew it for an omen.
He returned to his steading and called for his band, and showed them the scar. Some spoke of it in wonder, and others in fear, but Indrodar reassured them, saying it was but Death, which should be welcomed here at the edge of the Marsh, and he swore an oath he would go into the place of his enemy, and bring Death there. So Indrodar walked alone into the Marsh, and heard the howling of ghouls, trapped spirits within stolen bodies. A long time he sought them, knowing that the sounds led him further from the places that he knew, until cunning came upon him, and he turned as if to leave.
Then from the waters came bodies, moving although dead, and Indrodar slew a dozen and a dozen more, and made his way to a tiny island where he planted his sword and rested. The dead dared not approach the shadow of his sword, but they moved about him, at a distance, with the cries and howls of ghouls and dead demons.
While he rested, Indrodar prayed, and the shadow of his sword grew, and it could be seen from a mile away, and the dead fled before it, until a Vampire came on a dark mist, and landed before him in the shape of a woman, and smiled like one in love. Indrodar knew weariness, and for a moment he faltered, but the strength of his god was in him, and he plucked his sword from the ground and as he did so, the pale woman cowered back. He wasted no sword-stroke, but held out the sword as a sign of Death and commanded her to be gone to her rest, and there she crumpled into ash and smoke.
Then Indrodar Greydog walked out of the Marsh, to tell his people the secret of the Death Rune and the Dancers in Darkness, and although few of them could command their deaths as he did, they could drive back the Dancers, thanks to his vision and the strength of his spirit. And when he looked again on his scars, the two marks on his arm lay as chariot tracks, together in amity.
