It was an Iron Blood-Brand.
The ancestral passage seal carried exclusively by the high warriors of the Zor-Grimmarch line.
The brand was a heavy, blackened wedge of volcanic meteoric iron, four finger-widths wide and cold as a tombstone despite the hall's heat.
It was forged in the shape of a jagged, split skull, bound tightly by carved rings of barbed chain that dug into the dark metal.
The surface was not smooth; it was deeply pitted from exposure to ancient acid, etched with ancient runic warnings in the archaic dialect of the first clans, and caked in dark, oxidized rust that smelled faintly of dried blood.
It carried no royal polish, no decorative filigree.
It was an instrument of absolute, irreversible authority, carried only to authorize passage into the death-zones beneath the world.
Kragor thrust the heavy piece of iron toward Jack's chest.
