Storyteller (short story)

Storyteller was a 2011 short story written by Matt Kimpton and released in the anthology A Romance in Twelve Parts.

Summary
A young bard, Drostan, is determined to turn his life into a legendary tale, but his hunt to do so changes his own story in strange and terrible ways...

Plot
In a Viking hall an old man begins to recite his tale to Hrothgar, Ælfric and the rest of the Viking clan, about an Anglo-Saxon storyteller, Drostan, who sets about his quest of forging his own story.

Throughout the story Drostan becomes aware that several people are being erased from time, including a young girl called Katya, a beggarman from Diss and a Priest of Odin, and that he is the only one with any memory of them. Upon hearing Viking tales, Drostan becomes convinced that a Blood Witch has made a deal with the Norse deity Hel and has acquired her sword named Famine which she is using to cut the tapestry of time itself. Drostan arms himself with an amulet from Katya's parents, herbs upon his tongue and the rune of Odin on his forehead and seeks out the Witch. During their confrontation the Witch gets the better of Drostan and, telling him that he has given her power to enter the world through his stories, she defeats him.

Back in the Viking hall the old man tries in vain to keep the Viking clan's attention with his story, and alludes to the fact that he himself is Drostan and can only be kept alive through people remembering his story.

Characters

 * Hrothgar
 * Ælfric
 * Old man/Drostan
 * Young skald
 * The Blood Witch

Continuity

 * The Blood Witch and Drostan would later be resurrected in the City of the Saved. (PROSE: A Hundred Words from a Civil War)