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Failure follows every step

And here’s the last leap that I took

Again, no punishment, just like Callinicum

For months we’ve withstood Gothic siege

We’re hanging on by a thread

All of these new recruits we’ve pressed, they are not prepared

And yet I saw it fit to try to test their mettle

Blessed am I, standing aright

Gazing upon the fields below

So many times I could have died

Why am I preserved?

Cursed am I, turning away

Gazing upon the streets below

I see her once again with him

Antonina smiles

I call the men to arms and shout, “O stavros nika!”

We sweep into the fields beyond

The battle is raging

The new recruits had pushed them back, but chose not to pursue

Instead they chose to loot the camps

This cost us victory

Amber dusk

Again, it happened once again

It burns, shredding my heart, oh it burns

Again, I’ll have to blame the men

Report they pressured me into the fight

Now recalled to Syria, he took upon himself a new restraint

With shepherd-like protectiveness he’d guide his men to fight the Sassanids

His young step-son Photius meanwhile was stationed in the capital

And there he saw his mother and Theodosius renew their love affair

O spider mother, while you’re at play Belisarius fights off invaders

And yet you soil your husband’s bed with another man

I’m yours no more

Photius rode to tell the man who took him as a son that he had been betrayed

The rolling hills of Syria are black against the glorious, ember-laden sunset

Step by step he strode and knelt before the man

There I spoke it all, and after, silence fell

After much endured, the man had finally broke

As darkness falls

Belisarius turns ‘round to face his step-son

As darkness falls

His heart is hardened – no more could he now endure

As darkness falls

The two embraced and swore to uproot the decay

As darkness falls

The two declared this mire of sin would be drained