[Intro]
After the horns, after the rain,
Someone washed the benches clean of pain.

[Verse 1]
The halls were mended with mismatched beams,
Old VAH-neer carvings in EYE-seer seams.
FRAYR taught gardens by the northern wall,
NYORD kept shells in a guest-room hall.
FRAY-yah's falcon cloak hung near the door,
Not as a warning, not as before.
Odin walked with a quieter tread,
Hearing the loom beneath what was said.

[Pre-Chorus]
Children played where the shields once broke,
Their wooden swords in a ring of smoke.
No one told them peace was cheap,
Only that old fires sleep.

[Chorus]
Ash in the Shared Cup, gold on the rim,
Bright vows float where the dark grows dim.
Ash in the Shared Cup, drink and remember,
Peace has roots in a bitter ember.
Raise it slow, never drain it up,
There is ash in the shared cup.

[Verse 2]
GOOL-vayg's name became three things:
A curse for beggars, a song for kings.
A mother used it to warn her son,
A trader carved it on weight and coin.
Some said she died, some said she hid,
Some found gold where the ash-lids slid.
FRAY-yah never gave the whole art away,
Odin never stopped learning how words obey.

[Pre-Chorus]
The broken shields became a table wide,
EYE-seer and VAH-neer sat side by side.
Still, when the cup crossed Odin’s hand,
Mud smelled fresh in the golden land.

[Chorus]
Ash in the Shared Cup, gold on the rim,
Bright vows float where the dark grows dim.
Ash in the Shared Cup, drink and remember,
Peace has roots in a bitter ember.
Raise it slow, never drain it up,
There is ash in the shared cup.

[Instrumental Break][Tagelharpa plays the album’s three-note motif slowly while acoustic guitar answers with open chords.]

[Bridge]
Peace is a roof with a burned-out beam,
A waking guard and a better dream.
Peace is a scar that the children touch,
Asking why it matters so much.

[Build-up]
Hang the spear. Mend the gate.
Leave one crack for the truth of hate.
Pass the cup. Speak the name.
Do not polish away the flame.

[Final Chorus]
Ash in the Shared Cup, gold on the rim,
Bright vows float where the dark grows dim.
Ash in the Shared Cup, drink and remember,
Peace has roots in a bitter ember.
There is ash in the shared cup.
But the hidden thread moves under the hill.

[Outro]
After the horns, after the rain,
The cup stayed warm with a careful stain.
Gold went quiet. The walls stood up.
And ash slept low in the shared cup.
