Changing of the Guards

Sixteen years

Sixteen banners

United over the field

Where the good shepherd grieves

Desperate men

Desperate women

Divided spreading their wings

'Neath the falling leaves

Fortune calls

I step forth

From the shadows to the marketplace

Merchants and thieves

Hungry for power

Molest you goin' down

She's smellin' sweet

Like the meadows where she was born

On midsummer's eve near the tower

The cold-blooded moon

The captain waits

Above the celebrations

Sending his thoughts

To a beloved maid whose ebony face

Is beyond communication

The captain is down

But still believing that his love will be repaid

He shaved her head

She was torn between Jupiter and Apollo

A messenger arrived

With a black nightingale, I seen her on the stairs

And I could not

Help but follow, follow her down past the fountain

Where they lifted her veil

I stumble to my feet

I rode past destruction

In the ditches with the stitches

Still mending 'neath the heart-shaped tattoo

Renegade priest

And treacherous young witches

Were handing out the flowers

That I'd given to you

The palace of mirrors

Where dark soldiers are reflected

The endless road

And the wailing of chimes, the emptied rooms

Where her memory is protected

Where the angel's voices whisper

To the souls of previous times

She wakes him up

Forty hours later

The sun is breaking the broken chains

Mountain laurel and rolling rocks

She's begging to know

What pleasures now he will be taking

He's pulling her down

And she's clutching onto his long golden locks

Gentlemen, he said

I don't need your organization

I've shined your shoes

I've moved your mountains

Marked your cards

But Eden is burning

Either brace yourself for elimination

Or else your hearts must have the courage

For the changing of the guards

Peace will come

With tranquility

And the splendor on the wheels of fire

But will bring us no reward when the false idols fall

And cruel death

Surrenders

With its pale ghost retreating

Between the king and the queen of swords