The beginning of the end (intro)

I have wealth beyond measure-
My treasures are words
Forged by time in a tale of
Such beauty they cry to be heard
Still a young fool was I as
My story begins
Yet like all fools considered
Myself to be wise -
A match for all things
But the lessons I've learned
I will never forget
When your teacher is life then
Success is survival and
Failure is death

From early years I saw the world
Through tunnel-vision eyes
My cloistered mind philosophized
And fossilized

Secure in my belief was I -
Assured throughout my life the
Only things that could sustain me
Were the words of Jesus Christ

There is no way to fight a foe
Who strikes from the inside
And once within we can begin to
Smite this pagan pride
We shall take their graven images
And grind them in the dirt
For that men can live in paradise
Must be the Devils work

[BROTHERS OF THE HOLY ORDER:]
The clerical conspiracy begins
We shall wash away your sins-
We have come to purify

To purge you of your liberty-
Absolve you of all sanity
The 'truth' you want to hear
We shall provide

How can we hope to save these
Heathen when we know not of
Their ways
One of us must journey southward-
Infiltrate and then assuage
Only when we have this knowledge
Can we finalise our plans
Greet them with a velvet glove-
Then crush them 'neath an iron hand

Christian soldiers armed with virtue-
Hearts afire with blind obsession
Cannot see the difference 'twixt

Compassion and oppression

These were the days I believed that
Salvation was mine
When I worshipped apostles
Believing their gospels to be divine
My life drifted by in a warm summer haze-
And I thought I would bath in the light
Of our lord 'till the end of my days

But destiny mocked me-
And fate did bequest
That the strength of my faith in
The Lord God Almighty be put to the test

My son your word is matchless as
A scribe you have been blessed

Your skill and faith in God doth
Qualify you for our quest
You will sail to Southern England
And recount their blasphemies
For the first step in their cure
Must be to learn of their disease

For one so young so great an honour
To be chosen for this task
Have I the strength-
Would I be worthy?
Questions that I dared not ask
Was I to be a missionary searching
For lost souls to save-
Or just another pawn in their
Monastic power games?

[BROTHERS OF THE HOLY ORDER:]
The clerical conspiracy begins
We shall wash away your sins-
We have come to purify
To purge you of your liberty-
Absolve you of all sanity
The 'truth' you want to hear
We shall provide

How can we hope to save these
Heathen when we know not of
Their ways
You Wat Brand must journey southward-
Infiltrate and then assuage
Only when we have this knowledge
Can we finalise our plans
Greet them with a velvet glove-
Then crush them 'neath an iron hand

Christian soldiers armed with virtue-
Hearts afire with blind obsession
Cannot see the difference 'twixt
Compassion and oppression

And so with terror in my heart
I learned what had to be
That I must tour these foreign shores-
My cross for company
Those who had preceded me
Of pagan devils warned-
With fearful tales of christian souls
Since martyred on their horns

In my tale I will tell how we
All were deceived-
For in truth I was hunted not
Hunter as I had believed

How could I have known that the
Guide they'd provide was to
Show me far more than I'd ever
Imagined I could have desired?
So soon would I learn
What a fool I had been
There is more than one side to a coin-
Life is not what it seems
It's no more than a dream