[start] [Intro: Low vocal drone, bowed lyre or string drone, slow heartbeat-like pulse] [Instrumental only] [Verse] Before the law, before the crown Before the names were written down Steel was sworn to earth and bone And fate was carved in standing stone The ravens watched from iron skies Counted oaths and counted lives No man walked this land alone The past was loud, the future known [Chorus] When the ravens spoke, we listened Through the storm and through the mist Blood remembers what lips forget What is sworn is never missed When the ravens spoke, we stood Bound by ash and elder wood No prayer wasted, none unheard When the ravens spoke the word [Verse] Winter took what summer gave Names were lost beneath the waves Still the fire was kept alive By those who stayed, by those who died A man is weighed by how he stands Not by silver, not by lands Only this the old ones knew What you break will break you too [Chorus] When the ravens spoke, we listened Through the storm and through the mist Blood remembers what lips forget What is sworn is never missed When the ravens spoke, we stood Bound by ash and elder wood No prayer wasted, none unheard When the ravens spoke the word [Bridge] [Instrumental rise: voices stack in parallel fifths, slow and solemn] If my name is lost to time Let my deeds remain in line If my bones return to ground Let my truth still make a sound [Chorus] When the ravens spoke, we listened (Not in fear, but in resolve) Through the dark, the oath, the distance (What was sworn must be absolved) When the ravens speak again Let them say we did not bend That we stood as we were taught That we lived the truth we wrought [Outro: Drone fades, single voice repeats softly] When the ravens spoke We listened [end]
