The price of the line.

(Verse 1)

The cavern groaned with a hungry heat

Ten thousand boots, a rhythmic beat

The Matron spoke with a poisoned tongue:

"Give me their blood 'ere the day is done."

She drew a line on a map of silk

With hands as white as winter’s milk

"Discard the weak, let the vanguard fall,

A sacrifice to break the wall."

(Chorus)

But Mordan watched the shadows grow

He saw the trap they did not know.

A commander’s pride is a shallow grave

For the loyal souls he refused to save.

The whispers move where the light is dim

The Duskwhisper’s debt... belongs to him.

(Verse 2)

I broke the oath, I broke the chain

I marched them through the hidden vein.

Without a scream, without a loss

I took the fort... I paid the cost.

I brought them home to the citadel gates

To find the greed of the ruling states.

They didn't cheer for the lives I kept

They mourned the blood that was never wept.

(Bridge)

(The violin turns sharp and jagged here)

A victory won is a sin, they say,

If you don't do it the Masters' way.

Better a thousand corpses piled

Than a ruling house with a pride defiled.

They stripped my rank, they burned my name

But I kept my men... and they kept their shame.

(Outro)

Now I walk the sun-scorched dirt

With a mind of steel and a veteran's hurt.

The board is set, the pieces move

I have no more "glory" left to prove.

(Fade out with a single drum beat)

Checkmate.