No One Stood

My banner flew with theirs in the old wars
When their call came over the water, I answered
My men on their walls at dawn, shoulder to shoulder
Shields locked, spears up, ready for Valhalla
I never counted the cost of standing by them
Standing was the oath. Standing was the whole of it.

Then the river rose on my own shore
I sent the word out the way the word was sent to me
I raised the banner on the hill
The raven settled on the standard's crown
And I watched the road
And I watched the road

I called my brothers and no one came
The empire stood with empty hands
Every oath they swore was smoke on the wind
Only the raven kept his post
I called my brothers
And no one stood

They came at us out of the tree line
More spears than I have ever counted since
The shield wall thinned the way ice thins
Good men fell saying the names of the absent
The banner went down in the mud of the field
And the raven screamed, but the raven stayed

I lived. Do not ask me how.
I carried the torn standard off that field on my back
The empire was lost by nightfall, every hall gone dark
But a banner is not the cloth, and an empire is not the walls
I know that now. The raven knew it first.
He never left the pole. Neither did I.

I called my brothers and no one came
Let the skalds sing it exactly as it was
The empire fell and I have the names
Carved where the frost cannot reach them
I will not forget it
And I will not forgive it

So I gathered new stones in the cold
Laid them one by one with these ruined hands
A smaller hall. A hotter fire.
The empire rebuilding, timber by timber
New faces at the table who know what a chair costs
I ask them for their presence. Oaths are cheap. Standing is not.

I RAISE THE BANNER (raise it, raise it)
THE EMPIRE RISES WITH IT (we stand, we stand)
The raven kept the standard through the worst of the night
What was lost is lost, what is mine, I rebuild
I raise the banner
And this time
They stand

Hear this, and let it travel.
The raven never forgets. The raven sees all.
Every empty chair, every unwatched road, written in black feathers.
And while my bloodline holds this banner, hand to hand, blood to blood,
The debt stays on the books.
We will never forget.
Watch the hill.
Valhalla waits for me. It does not wait for my enemies.