[Verse 1] I served among the ones who glowed, carried their banners, learned their creed. I thought devotion was a door that opened wide enough to let me in. The mantle settled on my shoulders like a crown too heavy to refuse. It didn't ask if I was ready. It only asked if I believed. [Verse 2] I traded doubt for certainty, traded questions for a single scale. Every face became a ledger, every story just a plea to fail. I told myself the law was kindness, sharpened past the point of doing harm. I didn't notice when the kindness stopped reaching past my own two arms. [Verse 3] A woman knelt with bread beneath her coat, her child crying somewhere out of sight. I read the theft before the hunger. I closed the book before the light. My hand still trembled when I sentenced her. I called the trembling reverence, not regret. By the third one, my hands were steady. That's the part I try hardest to forget. [Chorus] The mantle strikes. The judgment holds. The scale don't care for stories told. The hammer falls. The iron sets— the law don't weigh a mother's debts. [Verse 4] The mantle never raised its voice at me. It didn't need to. It only had to name. "You wanted purpose," it reminded me. "This is what purpose costs. Not shame." I stopped asking for permission. I stopped needing to be forgiven first. I wore the verdict like a blindfold and told myself it wasn't thirst. [Pre-Chorus] No hesitation. No excuse. Only the ruling, only the use. [Chorus] The mantle strikes. The judgment holds. The scale don't care for stories told. The hammer falls. The iron sets— the law don't weigh a mother's debts. [Verse 5] The faces blurred into a single shadow, the names dissolved into the ink I bled. I stopped looking at the ones I broke, and started looking at the scale instead. They all explain. They all have reasons. That's the part that used to reach me once. Now their reasons are just hollow noise between the crime and the response. [Bridge] The mantle calls it clarity. I call it the last thing I recall feeling. Somewhere under all this judgment is a man who used to weep at ceilings. Kneel and answer. Kneel and plead. Watch me weigh you like I used to weigh my need. Kneel and answer. Nothing spared. I forgot the shape of mercy. I don't think I care. [Verse 6] I used to reach for what was holy. Now I hand down what the mantle wants instead. I used to weep for those I sentenced. Now I barely notice when they bleed. No context. No forgiveness. No room left for anyone's defense. I learned the law the way they taught me— a cage made out of consequence. [Chorus] The mantle strikes. The judgment holds. The scale don't care for stories told. The hammer falls. The iron sets— the law don't weigh a mother's debts. [Outro] I asked to serve something worth serving. I got a ledger with no room for love. I set out to become a blessing. I became the thing I'm terrified of. The scale is balanced. The verdict cast. I am a blade with no one holding it. Is there anyone who hears me now? Please, before the iron drops— someone take this mantle down. I don't know how to stop. Please. Someone make me stop.
