Ground Zero (The Sword)

(To the tune of 'Men of Harlech', also known as 'Men of Cornwall')

Folk of Heaven, hear the singing

Of the somber Church-bells ringing

Link from Earth to Heaven springing;

This newly sacred place.

Thought the foe to cleave asunder

A nation's heart with fire and thunder;

So they swooped and struck to plunder

A people of their grace.

They lied and called it battle;

They deemed their victims cattle;

Dark joy was theirs in the foes' lairs,

Expecting no response at all save prattle

From these acts so damnatory -

They believed that this was their story;

How shocked they were to find that glory

Fled from their embrace.

Clear the sky that Tuesday morning

When the blow came without warning -

But a new age was a-borning

From this act so fell.

Though smoke and flames and terror thriving

Fought to choke their valiant striving

Rescuers sought those surviving

To harrow them from Hell.

They knew what there awaited;

Death, lurking, still not sated;

They knew they'd die, But did defy

The trap that with their folk was baited.

Oaths they held and were their token

They declined to have them broken;

And their honor, thus awoken,

Dragged that place from Hell.

Richard, Saint of the Sword

I bow to another's words.

Ground Zero: Average Tether (10 Word-Forces, standard Flow, Celestial Harbor, Quiet).