[Verse 1 – Hale:]
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.
[Verse 2 – Elizabeth:]
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.
[Chorus – Both:]
[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?
[Both:]
If walls should break and lines should bend,
Who stands when all the swords are spent?
[Verse 3 – Hale:]
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.
[Verse 4 – Elizabeth:]
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?
[Bridge – turning point]
[Elizabeth:]
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?
[Hale:]
That’s not the same—
[Elizabeth:]
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?
[Pause – Hale falters]
…
[Elizabeth (soft):]
You’ve seen the fire a woman brings—
If she may rise, then give me wings.
[Final Chorus – shifted power]
[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—
[Both:]
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.
[Outro]
[Hale (low):] You ask me to unmake the world…
[Elizabeth:] No…
Only to let me stand within it.
ElCeviche
