///*****/// [Intro] Beyond the sleeping world lies a fogbound northern crossing beneath a bruised sky, Where silence wears the color of a bruise. One spark survives beneath the weight of years, One human voice refuses to be used. [Verse 1] I carried doubt like water in a helmet, I carried blame like gravel in my boots. The climb exposed the weakness of my anger, Then showed me where a deeper courage roots. Not every battle asks a blade for payment, Not every victory needs a royal name. Sometimes the bravest act is standing open, And guarding one uncelebrated flame. [Pre-Chorus] Hear the low strings start their thunder, See the watchfires answer red. We are more than fear and hunger, We are all the words unsaid. [Chorus] Ask the black river oracle! Let the hammering heavens hear our cry. Ask the black river oracle! We were born to stand, not wait to die. Through the smoke, through the wound, through the night that calls us liars, We will carry living iron, we will carry living fires. Ask the black river oracle! Raise the truth until it cuts across the sky. [Verse 2] They promised peace, but sent us armies approaching from both banks while the water whispers doom. They dressed the oldest hunger up as law. I watched the faithful trade away their names, I watched the proud salute the thing they saw. Then in the ruin I uncovered a bronze coin that returns after every crossing; No jeweled relic, only proof made bright. It held the warmth of everyone who fell, And showed my empty hands what they must fight. [Chorus] Ask the black river oracle! We were born to stand, not wait to die. Through the smoke and through the wound, carry the living fire. Ask the black river oracle! Raise the truth across the sky. [Bridge] If I return alone, remember this: I will reveal the cost before the first arrow flies. No monument can breathe for those it buries, No sacred word can make a falsehood clean. The future is not granted by the mighty; It starts wherever ordinary hearts convene. [Guitar Solo - a misty guitar solo with slow bends, open-string drones and twin harmonies that rise like ravens] [Rhythm guitars hold the central motif while bass and drums widen the battlefield.] [Verse 3] This is the tale of a ferryman reading the future in a river poisoned by war. The weak became a wall around each other, The lost became a road across the rain. We learned that hope is neither soft nor silent, It bites the hand that feeds the world despair. It lifts the fallen standard from the gutter, And makes a kingdom out of those who care. [Final Chorus] Ask the black river oracle! Let the last horizon answer to our cry. Ask the black river oracle! We have learned the dark can bleed and empires die. Through the smoke, through the wound, through the years that tried to break us, We are neither owned nor ended; every scar will remake us. Ask the black river oracle! Raise the truth until it cuts across the sky.
