Be'lakor Stone's Reach 1. Venator As I skulked past the gates And drew behind the stones The winding trees enveloped The cloak around my bones Peering through the night's mist I crept through the fen To try and find the totem In the grey warg's den The freezing forest guards The secrets that he wrought His spirit lies on every twig His scent infests the haunt His howling cut the still air His cry up to the stars The piercing bay of his rage Tore the beat out of my heart To the entrance I stalked up in the shadows His breathing I could hear Rasping in the barrows Silently my dagger slid From its ice-cracked sheath His bloody maw emerging His jowls hung raw beneath Like those that lusted below me My mind was always snared The totem drew my senses The grey warg drew my fear His giblet eyes surveyed me His haggard haunch was raised Rearing up his splintered paw He struck me in a daze And with his jaws jarred open he tore me on the floor as lonely bones forgotten now I lay here evermore 2. From Scythe To Sceptre I knew you some years before Deep in prayer under bough Futile sighs in vital skin Your flesh caressed by night Yet change came quickly A bruise in the air, it staggered within Sweet sickly rot Black wound infection King, slave, child Your fates are united An unending row to the grave A single dance now, all eyes are shut Blind to the earthly Begging now to forget who I am Emperor, your sword is useless Shattered crowns so swiftly Fragile as the scythe Aching bones cling to swollen limbs Despair floods all senses The world is dying around me Gaping in mirth, his old eyes spoke Where you are now - I once was And what I am now - you soon will be Nothingness awaits you Begging now to regain what I've lost The tale of life is but a picture A flash in an abyss, a dream in the void See that there is no meaning, Understand eternal death You long now to try what you once feared But the time is gone and dust will be your legacy 3. Outlive The Hand In death she spoke of waiting Her final days were long These fields have changed since last she wept Before the silent throng She sits where childhood memories lie Above, beside, within them The carvings have outlived the hand Which bled to first begin them As features of the landscape merge The oldest trees are falling Awareness sweeps the view aside She stares as if recalling Seen first beyond the canopy They soon had reached the borders The clouds infused with burning breath Arrived from coldest corners The windswept valley hastens now As dying words are uttered From lips of earth and sapling's strain Like leaves, her last thoughts fluttered Again it darkens overhead The knowledge of it stills me And when the water starts to fall Preserve the drop that kills me 4. Sun's Delusion Descending through thickened mist An old man reached inside and tore out my slumber Ivory twists an open claw Set upon the skulls of man Formative years aside Truth blanched in sun's delusion But providence affirmed Destroyed my aberration Mortal seeds in divine Gave grief into life's form And so curved the spine Obeisance made before him Blessed in life but truly cursed by death Bitter choice befalls you Glory, lord of men, asks but pain Master's stone was weaved Compelled before the throne Then war came, a semblance of her Lands unite and he prospers Grand signs assail me Temptation yields assent As irons carve the sand A ruse brings fate upon him Anguished price for laurels Veins burnt by hatred, In premonitions menis consumed me Unsanctified, I cared nothing for their ways Yet a father's plea dragged mercy from me Now, demi-god, echo in eternity A toxic toll pierces the flaw On reflection, there was never any choice 5. Held In Hollows Through tainted mass A scourge unseen Brought three winters forth And set between After these hundreds of years The embers and fate will collide Her rotten heart has burst And shattered through dead wood When they drank from the earth, the end was near Tracing paths that once ran alone and pure Suffused within, the blighted decay Now snapped into dust, their splinters fall But a tithe to the wind, his frail grasps Clawed for the moon then came undone When all hope fails in the last broken bough Her strength will be gone Churning ash and husks in the bitter winds Crack the earth and burn the sky A wry procession of hubris Where nothing remains But everything changes... In destruction she will create Arising in glory, the searing gaze Crimson-handed specter of death Under the blood eye of furies Bury their feeble hearts 6. Husks 7. Aspect Name the aspect of oblivion That instilled in you such dread In the moment that was waiting Where the causal chain had led Describe the pure finality Of that twisted, cold eruption And attempt to comprehend Unparalleled destruction Unclench your teeth and meet your demise Behold the fate you always desired Standing on the brink, we see our home is lost A sacrifice led to the slaughter Black flickers grit the cusp Hands clasped under falling soil Drip down faintly by dark whispers A torrent into madness Blunt nails shred the life from your face Fetid strips of decaying hope Drift down gently In obsidian water Your pale arms reach for me Beckon me closer In silence at last A peace we always wanted We cease to be 8. Countless Skies Countless times below me Rivers rose and fell Ageless stones eroding out Across the endless swell Songs to pave the seasons Wounds to follow birth Cries to carry through the night Wombs to feed the earth Countless skies above me Each unlike the next Lines of more than moon and sun Glimpses of a text Countless hands have sought me Reaching out in vain Permanence observes without Compassion or disdain Flames to greet the harvest Storms to face in awe Winds to weave through every wood Walls to dull the road Purpose lost to frailty Craning blades of grass Strength and weakness on and on All that is will pass Countless hands have sought me Reaching out in vain Permanence observes without Compassion or disdain Flames to greet the harvest Storms to face in awe Winds to weave through every wood Walls to dull the road Countless waves around me Strong until the last Leaning into dimming dreams All that was has passed