Grey-Eyed Winter Bride

[Intro]
[Choir]
Kyrie
Kyrie
Grey-eyed child of ice

[Verse 1]
By the river
Snow still falling
Ashen reeds and breath like smoke
She waits wrapped in woven sorrow
Black braid
Frost upon her cloak

Old women whispered by the hearth-side
"Do not love what never cries"
He swore oaths beneath the birches
Still she trusted winter skies

[Chorus]
Grey-eyed winter bride
Crowned in silence
Veiled in white
You were promised fire
Given only endless night
Call his name across the valley
Every echo comes back blind
Grey-eyed winter bride
Frozen in a faith that died

[Verse 2]
Wedding bells like distant thunder
Iron hooves on iron ground
He rode past her pale reflection
In the ice she heard the sound

Candles drowned in sudden stormwinds
Crimson on the untouched snow
At the altar
Empty doorway
Only shadows came to glow

[Chorus]
Grey-eyed winter bride
Crowned in silence
Veiled in white
You were promised fire
Given only endless night
Call his name across the valley
Every echo comes back blind
Grey-eyed winter bride
Frozen in a faith that died

[Bridge]
[Pipe organ swells
Strings tremble]
She walks the banks when moons are hollow (hollow)
Bare feet kissing shards of glass
Every step a vow she swallowed
Every star a shattered past

"Take my name
" she calls to strangers
"Take this ring of rusted gold" (oh-oh)
Those who look into her gaze stay
Young in face and old in soul

[Final Chorus]
Grey-eyed winter bride
Crowned in silence
Veiled in white
All the lovers of the village
Fear your footprint in the light
Sing your dirge above the river
Choirs rise and branches bow
Grey-eyed winter bride
Who will free your spirit now?

Grey-eyed winter bride
Hush the storm behind your eyes
Let the thaw undo the binding
Let the spring uncoil the lies
Yet the wind repeats your story
Over ice that never cries
Grey-eyed winter bride
Reigns where every promise dies