About this song
To save her friends, she cast a forbidden spell that plunged her into the Lifestream, a river that stole her sight but gave her something more. Now, she reads the world in threads of aether, a dangerous vision that slowly consumes her own life. This is the price she paid for the truth, a candle burning at both ends.
Lyrics
[Intro] [Verse 1] The river took my eyes And gave them back as something else A current of aether, a glance through the threads I do not see — I read the dead The Flow was meant to save us And it did, in its own quiet way Thancred came back to colours I came back to grey [Pre-Chorus] Don't mistake my blindness for weakness Don't mistake the candle for the night [Chorus] I traded the light for the truth The candle for the deeper flame Some pay for their sight with gold I paid with my own slow name Don't mourn what I gave up — mourn what I lit There are sights you cannot see in the day I traded the light for the truth And it costs me a piece every word I say [Verse 2] My old mentor warned me — said the eye that sees too much Will see itself out of being, a candle in the rush The Scions never noticed how the spell undoes me slow Even Thancred — even him — does not know The aether is a mirror that drinks back what it shows And I am thinning with the years like the parchment knows But I never sleep — I never blink — I read the world unending Every wound in this room is a page turning open for me And I would pay this price again [Pre-Chorus] Don't mistake my blindness for weakness Don't mistake the candle for the night [Chorus] I traded the light for the truth The candle for the deeper flame Some pay for their sight with gold I paid with my own slow name Don't mourn what I gave up — mourn what I lit There are sights you cannot see in the day I traded the light for the truth And it costs me a piece every word I say [Bridge] There are nights I dream in colours I no longer have A meadow's exact green, my mother's blue scarf I wake and I find them — the threads, the glow, the swarm But I cannot remember warm [Final Chorus] I traded the light for the truth And the truth is a debt I am carrying Every spell I cast draws breath from your lungs Your fading light, a candle against the ferry But don't mourn what I gave — mourn what I take The dark is full of teachers, the bright is full of lies I traded the light for the truth And the river still has not had its fill [Outro] In the Rak'tika dark They called me Night's Blessed And I was — and I am — and I will be Until the river takes the rest of me
