### Part VIII: Heave the Oar Grip the oar, lads, the storm won't break! Portals rise, and the drowned awake! Thunder cracks where the sky is torn, Every wave is a dungeon born. Lightning claws with a monster's hand, Drag us deep to the shadowed land. ### Storm Chorus **Fight the storm, though the void runs wide, Portals churn in the blackened tide. Fight the storm, though the keel may rend, Isle of Shiddonia has no end.** Clones are made where the mast is split, Ghosts row on when the flesh has quit. Every gale is a guild undone, Every dawn sees the dark begun. ### Storm Chorus **Fight the storm, though the void runs wide, Portals churn in the blackened tide. Fight the storm, though the keel may rend, Isle of Shiddonia has no end.** Shidden walks where the breakers roll, Bearing storms in his hollow soul. Heave the chains till the night is slain, Yet the storm will always rise again. ### Storm Chorus **Fight the storm, though the stars collapse, Portals tear at the sailor's maps. Fight the storm till the oars are bone, In the Isle's black sea we are not our own.** Who rows the blackened tide again? **Response, echoing:** **Shidden's shade, and his thousand men.** Chains on wrists, and eyes of glass, Every clone through the Isle must pass. Born of blood, yet never free, We sink as one in eternity. ### Oar Chorus **Heave the oar, hear the bone-drums pound, Isle of Shiddonia drags us down. Heave the oar, where the drowned men sing, The dead return on the tide they bring.** Echoes whisper in White Gate's spire, Ash of the fallen, bone and fire. Shidden's name is the curse we bear, A thousand shadows, none repair. ### Oar Chorus **Heave the oar, hear the bone-drums pound, Isle of Shiddonia drags us down. Heave the oar, where the drowned men sing, The dead return on the tide they bring.** Not the hero, nor champion crowned, Just hollow masks in the Isle we're bound. Clones arise, and the guilds decay, But the tide of shadows will never stay. ### Final Oar Chorus **Heave the oar, till the soul is torn, Isle of Clones is the Isle forlorn. Heave the oar, through the storm and flame, Shidden's shadow is the only name.** ### Final Echo **Who rows the blackened tide again?** **Shidden's shade, and his thousand men.** **Heave the oar.** **Heave the oar.** **Heave the oar.** ## The Hostile Shore
