The Ingenuity of Shadows

The Alfa Romeo breathes its last in the oil and the dust
Nineteen-ten, a shattered frame of iron and of rust
One perfect shot, a crack of thunder in the morning gray
The fuel cans ignite, turning the sky to a funeral display
Deafening roar, the world goes black and white
We run through the ashes, escaping the claws of the light

To the hollow hotel where the ghosts used to sleep
Through the corridors dark and the secrets he keeps
I look to the ceiling, I look to the walls
We are cornered like wolves in these hallowed halls

In the Dreams Factory, where the gears never rest
We hide in the silence, put our fate to the test
Behind the shoji screens of a soldier's design
A palace of shadows, where the false walls align
It buys us a heartbeat, it buys us a breath
Before the iron giants bring the harvest of death

A simple soldier's mask, but a prince's hidden room
Luxurious whispers in the middle of the doom
Ingenuity carves a path through the lath and the stone
A sanctuary built for a king on a temporary throne
Sliding like silk, the partitions divide
While the steel-hearted scouts are hunting outside

But no wood can stop the thunder
No silk can stop the shell
When the tanks begin to hunger
They will tear through this velvet hell
Strategic retreat
From the luxury, to the street

In the Dreams Factory, where the gears never rest
We hide in the silence, put our fate to the test
Behind the shoji screens of a soldier's design
A palace of shadows, where the false walls align
It buys us a heartbeat, it buys us a breath
Before the iron giants bring the harvest of death

Just a grain of sand
In a world of tanks and lead
Find the north of the compass
Before the dream is dead