I SAW THE FIRE STAY [Verse 1 - Male] You stood where the candlelight broke, Small hands closed around a name, Everyone called it silence, I saw a different flame. You counted doors in a golden room, Watched every shadow bend, You looked like a storm in a velvet dress, Learning not to end. [Verse 1 - Female] You watched what no one else would see, The fear beneath the floor, You heard the wings inside the walls, And still you asked for more. You named me like a dangerous thing, Then acted like you knew, That fire does not always rise, Sometimes it waits for you. [Pre-Chorus - Male] I should have looked away, I should have left the spark alone. [Pre-Chorus - Female] I should have let you pass, I should have kept my fire unknown. [Chorus - Together] But I saw the fire stay, In the dark, in the stone, in the rain, You saw the fear I hid away, And never called it shame. I saw the fire stay, When the old halls learned our names, If the world asked who we were, We answered through the flames. [Verse 2 - Male] You did not need a crown to rule, You did not need a blade, The room grew quiet when you breathed, And I forgot my place. I was the boy who followed beasts, Who listened under skin, But you were the first wild thing I found That would not let me in. [Verse 2 - Female] You were not gentle in the way That stories teach a boy, You did not offer pretty words, Or make my ruin coy. You stood beside the burning door, Not asking me to run, And somehow in your watching eyes, I hated what I’d become. [Pre-Chorus - Male] I should have called you danger, I should have stepped aside. [Pre-Chorus - Female] I should have called you trouble, I should have learned to hide. [Chorus - Together] But I saw the fire stay, In the dark, in the stone, in the rain, You saw the fear I hid away, And never called it shame. I saw the fire stay, When the old halls learned our names, If the world asked who we were, We answered through the flames. [Bridge - Female] Do not make me holy. Do not make me kind. I have teeth beneath the ashes, I have doors inside my mind. [Bridge - Male] Do not make me harmless. Do not make me clean. I have heard what fear remembers, I have loved what should not be seen. [Bridge - Together] If you burn, I will not save you Like a saint from stained glass light. I will stand where smoke can find me, And know you by the night. [Final Chorus - Together] I saw the fire stay, Not above us, but between, Not a song for gentle lovers, But for everything unseen. I saw the fire stay, When the old world turned away, You knew the name I never gave, And I learned why I stayed. [Outro - Male] You were burning. [Outro - Female] You were near. [Outro - Together] And the fire Did not disappear.
