[Intro] There is a man in the castle And the castle is going dark And he is still there
[Verse 1] He brings the water before she asks He sets the fire before she shivers He has learned the specific silence that means she needs the room and the specific silence that means she needs a voice
He does not ask her to come back He does not say what he watches her becoming He just tends the way you tend something you refuse to call lost
The raven on her shoulder has too many opinions about the drapes The formal woman by the door is writing something in the margins of her notes The wolf is at the threshold watching everything with one eye closed The priest is in the corner and has not said a word in seven days
None of them are leaving None of them are leaving
[Pre-Chorus] When the titles fell / He stayed When the castle emptied / He stayed When the last advisor / packed his papers and his principles and walked into the morning / without looking back He stayed
[Chorus] Olan the Brave Not for the battle / Not for the war Not for the glory or the name above the door Olan the Brave For the woman in the tower / Going dark by degrees Olan the Brave For the staying / when the staying is the hardest thing / anyone has ever been asked to be
[Verse 2] I watch the raven pace the windowsill and tell the wolf exactly what she thinks about it The wolf says nothing / The raven says more
I watch the formal woman cross the room and set a cup beside the bed / with both hands as if delivering something precious and then retreat / as if she was never there
I watch the priest / sit in his corner looking at the door / and not through it
And I watch Olan / touch the edge of the purple cloth folded on the table / and leave it because she’ll know it was moved and she’ll know he was there and right now / that is the whole of what he can give
[Pre-Chorus 2] I know this raven / I know this woman I know this wolf / I know this silence I have seen these faces / in a different century I have heard this raven / in a different room
[Chorus] Olan the Brave / Not for the battle / Not for the war Not for the glory or the name above the door Olan the Brave / For the woman in the tower / Going dark by degrees Olan the Brave / For the staying / when the staying is the hardest thing / anyone has ever been asked to be
[Bridge] They were here first Before they found me / They were here Standing in a castle / watching a purple woman go the only direction / the world had left her And they stayed
A raven who cannot stop talking / stayed A woman who speaks like she is choosing every word / from a smaller and smaller set / stayed A wolf who says nothing / but has never left the door / stayed A priest who found / that silence / was the only honest language left / stayed
And they are mine now / And I am theirs And I did not choose them / And they did not choose me We chose the purple / And the purple / brought us / to each other
[Final Chorus] Olan the Brave / You gave everything you had to someone / who could not always / find you / through the dark Olan the Brave / And the ones around you / stayed the same way For a hundred years / For a thousand years For every version of the purple woman / who needed someone / to not leave
I see you I am standing in the fracture / Watching you tend the fire And I know / what you carry forward And I know / the book was always yours to keep
[Outro] The raven will follow / The woman will follow The wolf will follow / The silence will follow Into any century / Into any darkness Into any castle / that needs a fire tended And so will Olan / So will Olan