Of all the bleak and brilliant
Beyond the tarnished glass
And all the howling agony
That shall ever come to pass
I can speak not a word
Open doors, a myriad
Futures lie beyond them all
The years have brought me here

The tedium of wax and wane
The cyclic flow of sun and rain
Beget that ebb most terrible
When fantastic grows mundane
Wistful wind has always lured
Even kings to misery
O wanderlust, the gilded promise
That sirens never keep

This transition spirits me away
Left alone, I ponder
I find my heart ensconced in shade
In the middle of the day
As one in my conviction
To wander...

To wait and wait and waste it away
To pass forever into a day

Extinguishing the flame
Just to keep the moths away
This will not come again

I hear the fool I used to be
Asking breathlessly
If I still believe in the dream

I stand defiant
In the shadow of destiny
But there is one thing that I wish to know
Does the dream believe in me?

Push me away
Compel me to stay
Tear me away

This transition spirits me away
Left alone, I ponder
I find my heart ensconced in shade
In the middle of the day
As one in my conviction
To wander

Ashes where we rose
Scattered by the winds of time
Only dust remains
But the memories survive

Relics disappear
Fading more and more each day
Our garden of life
Has withered away

Close your eyes and see our home
Distant, like a dream
Tomorrow, the loudest whisper
Yesterday a hollow scream

Ancestors' fate
Descendants' fall from grace
Remember whence you came
Lest you lose your way

Wings of nostalgia
Carry us through ancient skies
Face the ghastly vision
Of the cosmic and divine

Close your eyes and see our home
(An emerald shimmering)
Distant, like a dream
(Out of reach)
Tomorrow, the loudest whisper
(takes us back to yesterday)
Yesterday a hollow scream
(and the cycle repeats)

Close your eyes and see our home
(No one else will know our story)
Distant, like a dream
(Who will remember us?)
Forever trapped within this self-fulfilling prophecy
(Eternally)

Far from human kind, and roots defied
Long ago
Two worlds, combined and intertwined
Began to grow

Beneath a canopy of trees
The perfect union they had foreseen
Torn apart by differing views
Man's endeavor to harness creation

Ether and steel
Echoes of ancient days
Grown from the Seed
Bury the secrets deep and lock them away...

...from prying eyes and youthful minds
That would know
The truth behind the dark divide
The ghostly glow

Stoic faces shrouded in the dark
An act of betrayal, a stolen heart
Waiting for a day that will never come
Forged into the sentinel of regret

Ether and steel
Echoes of ancient days
Grown from the Seed
Bury the secrets deep and lock them away

The mystery reaches out
From beyond these silent walls
And beckons gleaming hearts into the ether...

What etheric alchemy has wrought this wonder
Stretching on and on as far as eyes can see
The laughing god has clawed the earth asunder
Two sides split by the ravine
But closer than they seem

Silent wandering spectral Guides
The elemental soul of fire
Keepers of forgotten rites
Glass-eyed shadows on the walls
The clockwork Angel giving life
The Court conceals them all

Ether and steel
Echoes of ancient days
Grown from the Seed
Bury the secrets deep and lock them away

Endeavor to seduce me
Gather my wounds to be cauterized
Show me something that cannot be
The future rushes into my eyes

Take away my name
Lie to me
Tell me every fate is the same
Release me into the waves
This chamber will be silent once I've gone away

Impassioned, yet so refracted

Leave me to my shame
Go from me
Find another life you can claim
Forget me - I can survive
This torture bleeds the pressure keeping you alive

Torn and broken, bleak and blinding

Omens burn bright
Written in the sky at night
In this chamber
I can hide from starlight

These walls will shield my ears from the sound
As I dig my roots deeper and deeper into the ground

Omens burn bright
Written in the sky at night
In this chamber
I can hide from starlight

Carry my dead weight down
Lay me to rest in a cave
Gather my burns to be grafted
From the last shreds of skin that remain unscathed

Crack the firmament
Now hear me
Cast your hearts upon the cement
And fear me - This is my curse
My chamber now encompasses the universe

Constellations, core and creature

Secrets all mine
Written in the sky at night
In this chamber
I become the starlight

Be silent
Speak no more
Find your force before it slips into the void
Be vigilant
Stay your hand
And stand your ground in No Man's Land
Be silent now

Deceptions are whispered
In tongues of fire
The will of the machine
The spider on the wire

Roiling seas beyond a web of steel
How did I never see their waves before today?
I only wish to run away

Violet skies are mirrored in my eyes
It must be by design, because it feels so real
I want to believe I can heal

Each time I draw near, again I'm forsaken
It must be illusion and nothing more
I give up on the dream each time I awaken
Still it compels me
An unseen shore

The darkening sky calls me out
This voyage seems more and more familiar every night
Now, in defiance of my doubt
Intensifies that omnidirectional light

I am lost
And silently hoping to say my last goodbye
Maybe this time

The shroud that wraps around my throat
Vehemently denies
The world behind my eyes

Despairing in the storm
I fear I am fated to be drawn beneath
The shapeless cold, the fathomless deep
But then the parting fog reveals the truth
An island comes into view

The hidden hand
That lifts my voice
Heeds the calling and leaves me with no choice
The bleeding edge
Comes all too soon
And tears the silence open like a wound

Apocalyptic whirlwind
The rage of nations

Across the ancient desert
Where only the crows bear witness

Of prophecies writ
The desert shall rise as one

[Korbolo]
Ride them down
Every man, woman, child
Bring loss and despair
Cast their souls to the wind
Our hearts burn like fire, evoke divine rage
Deliverance! Apocalypse! Rend their chain!

Follow the trail of the dead
Follow the chain of suffering

[Coltaine]
Save at all cost
Every man, woman, child
From loss and despair
In chains we unite
Rage-tempered steel fought with iron ice cold
We march ever southwards
Though witnessed, untold

We leave a trail of our dead
Forging our chain of suffering

This is the blood of our lives
This is the payment of our deeds
All soon to be forgotten

[Coltaine]
Wind-scoured and bled dry
A hate-ridden command
The rivers and the mountains
Once ochre, now stained red
Snapping at my hand
As wind howls through their bones
We lead a chain of dogs
Across these burning lands

This is the blood of our lives
This is the payment of our deeds
All soon to be forgotten

We were never what people could be
We were only what we were
Remember... you must remember
Remember us

We are abandoned to history
Raise high the tattered standard of the Fallen
Denied justice, denied legacy
Heroic deeds purged from memory

Dark clouds encroach
And drag the light out of the midday sun
Standing stones surround the confluence of nine into one
Overhead, seven monuments to years gone by
Seem to call upon the wind to scour the mountainside
And imbue the stones with a life all their own

And from the voices of the young and wild
A howling tempest takes its form
Silent and paralyzed, thousands of upturned eyes
Behold the approaching storm

Rain fears no fire
Just as the tide fears no shore
The sound of marching will be lost in the roar

Great multitudes lie asleep and waiting
Caught in the gears of the groaning machine
As worlds assemble themselves out of sight
Nestled among the evergreens

Two columns of stone adorned with the Wayfarer's seal
Rise through the vault of eternity no man can know
And the wide-eyed shuffling denizens of the unreal
Never suspect what goes on in the chambers below

A torch on the wall of the lodestone corridor
Ignites a threadbare tapestry older than dreams
The blaze illuminates a staircase descending to a long-forgotten door
And the lock that bars it closed is not as unbreakable as it seems

Down where all is still, nothing grows
Every sound disappears
Save only the old dead words that no one hears

Rain fears no fire
Just as the tide fears no shore
The sound of marching will be lost forever in the roar

Thousands of upturned eyes that should have been weeping
Instead are blistering beneath the open sky
Beyond the sea, the dreamers who should have been sleeping
Glimpse, for a moment, the destiny they must defy

Borne upon the wistful wind
Spirited away by the frailest prayer
Wailing through the threnody
One voice becomes a symphony
Wanderlust shall be its only dream
And those who remain shall speak its name

A tragedy in song
Apostasy the winds portend
From battlements upon the crags of dawn
I witness the end