The Daughter I Raised

You stand before me dressed in lies,

A stolen name, a false disguise,

A Hale does not betray her blood—

You shame this house for war and mud.

They said your ship was torn apart,

I felt the grave inside my heart,

I mourned you lost to flame and sky…

God help me, child—I watched you die.

I stood where sons and soldiers stand,

With steel and fire in either hand,

No borrowed courage, none untrue—

The strength I bear was taught by you.

If I have sinned, then this I claim:

You raised me fit to face the flame,

And now you bid me turn away

From all you taught me to obey.

[Hale:] The war is not a place for you—

Elizabeth: The war is where I’m needed most—

[Hale:] The men will stand, the men will do—

[Elizabeth:] And if they fall, who guards the coast?

If walls should break and lines should bend,

Who stands when all the swords are spent?

This is not your burden, child,

This road is ruin, dark and wild,

We fight so you need never stand

Where death is dealt by your own hand.

And if you fail? If all lie slain?

If ash falls down like bitter rain?

You’d have us wait with folded hands

For ghosts to guard these broken lands?

Would you ground Amanda’s wings?

Chain her hands, silence the things

That make her feared where dragons fly?

Would you tell her stand aside?

That’s not the same—

She’s small. She’s slight.

A woman standing in that fight.

Would you call her back to hearth—

Say her place is not her worth?

…

You’ve seen the fire a woman brings—

If she may rise, then give me wings.

[Hale (uncertain):] The war is not a place for you—

[Elizabeth (firm):] The war belongs to all who stand—

[Hale:] The men will fight and see it through—

[Elizabeth:] Then trust the strength beyond your plan—

If night should fall and none remain,

No shield, no sword to break the chain—

Then those once kept from fire’s breath

Must learn to stand… or face that death.

[Hale (low):] You ask me to unmake the world…

[Elizabeth:] No…

Only to let me stand within it.