Blade of Banished Souls
Check the lining, check the seams,
I’m not always what I seem.
Empty hands beneath the light— Something sharp when you blink twice.
Lost the contest, won the blade,
Let them argue how I played.
Learned its weight and found my stride— Now the dead come for
the ride.
Keep your eyes upon my grin,
Never
mind what sleeps within.
You see
steel; I see the names.
We
are
playing different games.
Nothing up my sleeve,
Careful
what you choose to believe.
Watch my hands, ignore the grin— You
won’t see me let the shadows in.
Every soul has left a sign,
Every
ghost a place in line.
All these lives inside the steel— Still don’t know what mine reveals.
Zayn is there, and Crush is too,
Faces you can almost see through.
Once they stood across from me;
Now the blade keeps company.
Draw them out and watch them rise,
Let the silence swallow cries.
For a moment, face to face,
All my ghosts can fill this place.
Quite a crowd behind the edge,
Quite a view from off this ledge.
They’ve all got a soul to show—
Where is mine? I’d like to know.
Nothing up my sleeve,
Careful
what you choose to believe.
Watch my hands, ignore the grin— You
won’t see me let the shadows in.
Every
soul has left a sign,
Every
ghost a place in line.
All these lives inside the steel— Still don’t know what mine reveals.
Skrank was smiling at his fame,
I just asked him for his name.
“Got a sister, she’s a fan.” Put the future in his hand.
Ink went down; the bargain held.
Took that deal where old souls dwelled.
Asked for dragons, got a god— Even I found that one odd.
Tiamat behind the blade,
Five great heads in spectral shade.
Ten millennia on a loan—
Dragon god, but not my own.
Dreamed a door, then found the stone.
Never been, but somehow known.
Called my sister, heard her doubt; Heard the click that shut me
out. She was meant to see ahead.
Why’s the vision in my head?
I can give a god a home—
Still can’t find a soul
to call my own.
I know how to palm a knife,
How to bluff and bet my life.
But when sleep pulls back the veil,
Who’s the hand that tips the scale?
Nothing up my sleeve,
That’s what I would have you believe.
Watch my hands, ignore the grin—
Don’t ask what the dreams have been.
Crowded blade and empty soul,
Something here beyond control.
I can make the dead appear—
Who keeps drawing me back here?
All those souls along the blade.
All those bargains bought and made.
When the shadows leave me be—
What is left that’s only me?