“FORTRESS BLOODLINE” (Male vocal. Deep, controlled, restrained fury. Slow crushing groove.) Verse 1 I was born behind locked gates Raised where silence equals strength Every weakness weaponized Every truth denied at length My name was never mine to hold It was armor, it was chain Love was taught as leverage Attachment equaled pain You came to me unguarded Sick, radiant, unashamed You loved like there were no kingdoms I loved like I’d been trained Pre-Chorus You saw the boy beneath the steel The fracture in the throne But I was raised to bury truth And stand my ground alone Chorus It wasn’t bullets It wasn’t war It was a bloodline closing doors It wasn’t death It wasn’t fate It was fear that made me hesitate You loved me without walls I chose survival over fall I didn’t leave because you were weak I left because you saw it all Verse 2 You told me about the bathroom floor The sickness, the empty house You needed someone steady I was still a guarded mouth You asked me to grow upright To stand without disguise But I was shaped by empire Not by honest eyes So when you reached for something real I felt the ground give way Loving you meant losing The only script I knew to play Breakdown (Polyrhythmic, low growl) Fortress blood Fortress mind Fortress heart Left behind I wasn’t chained by soldiers I was chained by pride You didn’t lose to power You lost to what I hide Bridge (Cleaner, emotional male tone) When I blamed your body When I blamed your fire It was easier than saying I was terrified You were never poison You were never sin You were the only place I ever felt thin Final Chorus (Huge, crushing) It wasn’t death that kept me It wasn’t some decree It was a kingdom in my head That would not let me be You weren’t my destruction You weren’t my fall You were the only woman Who saw through it all If I stand before you now It won’t be as a son It will be as a man who chose To finally become one