[Intro]
[Three shield strikes are followed by a dry, palm-muted guitar pulse.]

[Verse 1]
The others slept beside the road,
Their mail wrapped tight, their breathing low.
I watched the south through leafless trees,
A dark path open, wide and free.
One horse was tied beyond the fire;
One cut could grant my heart’s desire.
By dawn I could be leagues away,
Alive beneath another day.

[Pre-Chorus]
My hand found leather, knife and rein.
Behind me, someone spoke my name.
Not god, not ghost, not battle-mate—
Her voice lived in the wool she gave.

[Chorus]
There is no shield against fate,
No wall, no hidden gate.
But I can choose the ground
Where they lay my body down.
I cannot make the ending wait—
There is no shield against fate.

[Verse 2]
I saw the house beside the grain,
The oath-fire fighting snow and rain.
I saw her hands around one coal,
Its little heat against the cold.
To flee might spare my blood and bone,
Yet leave my given word alone.
What life would cross the southern sea
If every mile unmade me?

[Pre-Chorus]
I cut no rope. I sheathed the knife.
I chose no promise of a life.
The horse breathed white beside the gate.
I turned to meet the road and fate.

[Chorus]
There is no shield against fate,
No wall, no hidden gate.
But I can choose the ground
Where they lay my body down.
I cannot make the ending wait—
There is no shield against fate.

[Bridge]
I am afraid.
Let that be known.
My courage is not carved in stone.
It is a foot raised from the mud,
A shaking hand that still grips wood.
It is not hope that I survive;
It is the way I stay alive
Inside the hour that carries me
Toward what I cannot cease to see.

[Breakdown]
No shield against wolf.
No shield against flame.
No shield against threads
Already tied to my name.
But shoulder to shoulder,
Though death holds the gate,
We choose how we stand
When we cannot choose fate.

[Final Chorus]
There is no shield against fate,
No wall, no hidden gate.
But I have chosen the ground
Where they will lay my body down.
Beside the ones who shared my weight,
I meet the hour and do not wait.
No shield can save us from the blade—
But vows decide the stand we made.

[Outro]
At dawn I woke the nearest man.
We stamped the fire and marched again.
My faded sun faced toward the plain.
Behind us, hoofprints filled with rain.