Hope of the Fallen

Lyrics

(Intro) (Low, rhythmic drumming like a slow heartbeat. A single, mournful cello or a deep, droning choir.) (Verse 1) The sky was a wound that refused to close A white-hot wind where the river froze No hands to hold it, no stone to bind Just the screaming light and a fevered mind The harvest is burning in a cold, blue flame And the children are calling a god with no name. (Chorus) (Voice drops to a low, weary chant) Oh, the voices in the ash, they are crying for the rain To wash away the magic and the hunger and the pain We are tinder for the lightning, we are dust before the gale We are begging for a master, we are praying for a veil Before the slate was broken, before the bone was sworn We were dying in the shadow, before the Vestra were born. (Verse 2) A mother's touch is a cauterized scar The cradle is charred by a falling star We hid in the caves where the silence is deep But the hum in the air wouldn't let us sleep It's a power untamed, it's a world set on fire And the smoke of our lives is the only pyre. (Bridge) (Tempo slows further; voices become a desperate whisper) Give us a cage for the storm... Give us a hearth for the heat... Build us a wall made of iron and rock To keep the wild pulse from our feet We'll pay in our blood, we'll pay in our breath Just give us a life that isn't a death. (Chorus) (Harmonies swell, heavy and dissonant) Oh, the voices in the ash, they are crying for the rain To wash away the magic and the hunger and the pain We are tinder for the lightning, we are dust before the gale We are begging for a master, we are praying for a veil Before the slate was broken, before the bone was sworn We were dying in the shadow, before the Vestra were born. (Outro) (The music fades to a single low note) The wind is rising... The ash is falling... Someone... anyone... Bind the light. Before we all burn white.