Sworn to the Grave

I came home with medals made of ashBut you were gone before I could save youThe war gave me iron, smoke, and scarsBut left me kneeling where you are

Sister, I swear by the blood they spilledBy the breath they stole from youBy the cold earth above your heartBy the grave they forced me to kneel before

No dawn shall absolve themNo priest shall cleanse themNo crown shall hide themNo grave shall shelter meUntil justice stands where I now kneel

If I break this vowLet death deny meLet heaven closeLet hell remember

I am yours in vengeanceI am yours in sorrowI am the blade no prayer can saveI am sworn to the grave

The bells were dead when I reached the townOnly smoke where the roofs burned downChildren whispered behind the wallsWhile names of the lost filled the chapel halls

Your window stood with an open frameYour room still breathing your given nameA ribbon left on the bedroom floorAnd blood dried dark by the shattered door

I crossed the fields where the black birds fedThrough the silence of the newly deadNo victory song, no hero's claimOnly your stone in the freezing rain

And I heard your voice in the thunder rollLike a wound still burning through my soulNot asking for mercyNot asking for tearsBut I gave you an oathThat would outlive the years

Sworn to the graveNo light, no rest, no saving graceI carry your nameThrough fire, through blood, through endless rain

Sworn to the graveNo cross, no crown can hide their shameTill all who fed this war are slainI am swornI am sworn to the grave

They called it glory, they called it fateWhile they locked their doors behind golden gatesThey blessed the swords, they praised the flameThen washed their hands of the bodies and blame

I saw their banners above the throneStitched with the bones of the poor unknownThey drank to peace from a silver cupWhile the graves outside kept filling up

So I sharpened grief into something coldTurned every prayer into iron and boneIf heaven is deaf and the gods look awayI'll be the judgment they cannot pray away

And I hear your voice when the night winds riseLike a candle burning behind my eyesNot asking for mercyNot asking for peaceBut I swore by your graveThat the guilty would bleed

Sworn to the graveNo light, no rest, no saving graceI carry your nameThrough fire, through blood, through endless rain

Sworn to the graveNo cross, no crown can hide their shameTill all who fed this war are slainI am swornI am sworn to the grave

One by one, I found their doorsThe kings, the liars, the lords of warThe tongues that ordered, the hands that paidThe holy men who blessed the blade

But every face beneath my knifeWore something stolen from my lifeAnd every cry, and every fallLeft your voice more distant through it all

Now I fear what I have becomeA brother buried beneath the drumIf you could see me through the rainWould you know my face?Would you speak my name?

Sister, forgive meI followed the flameI thought every deathWould bring back your name

But vengeance is hollowAnd justice is blindI buried the worldBut not what I left behind

If I lay down the bladeWill your memory fade?If I walk from the bloodWas the oath betrayed?

The grave gives no answerThe wind knows no prayerBut I still feel your shadowBeside me there

So I kneel once more where the cold stones sleepWith a soul too broken, with a vow too deepNot asking for mercyNot asking to be savedOnly bound to the promiseI carved on your grave

Sworn to the graveNo light, no rest, no saving graceI carry your nameThrough fire, through blood, through endless rain

Sworn to the graveNo cross, no crown can hide their shameTill all who fed this war are slainI am swornI am sworn to the grave

Sworn to the graveNo dawn can wash this curse awayI live by the woundI die by the nameI could not save

Sworn to the graveNo god, no bell, no final flameTill earth rejects my bones and nameI am swornI am sworn to the grave

The rain still falls where I first knelt downYour stone is coldMy hands are stained

SisterI kept my vow

But I lost the manWho made it