[Instrumental Intro]
(soft acoustic guitar picking building to full band, evocative and reflective)

[Verse 1]
I’ve walked these shadowed roads alone
Carried scars carved deep in stone
Seen the darkness claim its own
Felt the weight of worlds unknown
Promises kept through endless night
Vows that burn with sacred light
Handed down in silence deep
A trust no grave could ever keep

[Chorus]
Though no blood ever bound our fate
A soul was placed within my gate
In this cycle of dust and flame
I’ll seek that light beyond the name
Through gates of grace or endless fire
This weary heart will never tire
What is love if not forged in pain?
We rise from ashes, again and again

[Verse 2]
The wheel keeps turning, cold and slow
Souls adrift in undertow
Dreams lie buried ‘neath the years
Drowned in rivers made of tears
Yet in one gaze I glimpsed the dawn
A borrowed spark to carry on
No chain of flesh, no mortal tie
But something death itself defies

[Chorus]
Though no blood ever bound our fate
A soul was placed within my gate
In this cycle of dust and flame
I’ll seek that light beyond the name
Through gates of grace or endless fire
This weary heart will never tire
What is love if not forged in pain?
We rise from ashes, again and again

[Bridge]
Is life a dream we can’t escape?
A fleeting veil, a shadowed shape?
Do we suffer to break the wheel
Or wander lost until we heal?
When this form dissolves to dust
And journeys on as all forms must
Before the vast and silent throne
I’ll plead for one I’ve never owned

[Instrumental Interlude]
(epic guitar solo building intensity, emotional swells, reflective pause)

[Chorus]
Though no blood ever bound our fate
A soul was placed within my gate
In endless turning toward the light
That promise echoes through the night
Though pain has hollowed out my core
I carry on forevermore
In the search for peace beyond recall
I’ll bear this vow through rise and fall

[Outro]
(soft reprise of chorus melody, fading vocals)
Forever… the flame…

(extended instrumental fade with acoustic guitar, piano echoes, and gentle harmonies dissolving into silence)