Act 2 · Track 22

Arrows in the Air

The outsider prophet on the wall, dodging arrows while preaching to the chosen people.

pov

the outsider on the wall

genre

Brass Driven Cinematic Orchestral

scripture

Helaman 13–16

Lyrics

Verse 1

I am standing on your wall

You can hear me from the street

I came up from a country you call cursed

To tell you what your priests will not

I am a Lamanite

You taught your children to hate me

And the Lord sent me here

To tell you that you are wrong

Verse 2

Your fathers were the righteous ones

You are not your fathers

You have grown rich

You have grown proud

You have forgotten the One who gave you the land

My people kneel while yours stand sneering

My people pray while yours pass the bread without breaking it

And the Lord has noticed who is praying

And who is not

Chorus

I am sounding the trumpet

Whether you hear it or you don't

The One who is coming

Is coming

The One who is coming

Is coming

Verse 3

In five years

Mark the day

A child will be born across the sea

And the night before his birth

Will have no darkness in it

The sun will set

And there will be no shadow

There will be a new star

Burning over a country you will never visit

In five years

Five years from this wall

Bridge

I can hear them coming

The arrows in the air

The stones the children are throwing

Because their fathers said so

I feel them passing by my shoulders

But none of them are touching me

Because the Spirit will not let them

Verse 4

And he will die for you

The One who is coming

And the day he dies

The earth will split

Three days of darkness will cover this land

So thick you will not see your own hand

And then he will rise

And he will come to this very land

And the survivors will know him

By the wounds in his hands

Final Chorus

I am sounding the trumpet

The One who is coming

Is coming

The One who is coming

Is coming

Outro

And I climbed down off the wall

I walked back to my own country

And no one in this city ever saw me again

I delivered the message

The message will keep itself

Behind the Song

The album’s pivot

The last loud song of Act II and the bridge into Act III. The album has been getting louder through Act II — armies, anti-Christs, war chants, the Title of Liberty. Samuel is where the album begins to return to quiet. The trumpet that ends this song is the announcement that the next part of the record will be different.

I am a Lamanite

The third line of verse one. Direct, declarative. The man the audience has been taught to hate is the man God sent. The album’s longest emotional turn — the chosen people the listener has been rooting for since Act I have become the antagonists, and the outsider has become the prophet.

Sounding the trumpet

Samuel is the album’s first prophet whose sonic identity is brass. Trumpets and trombones announce kings, judgments, arrivals. The herald does not need the audience to receive the message. The message is going out regardless. That is the loneliness of true prophecy — you deliver it knowing they will not receive it, and you deliver it anyway.

In five years

The album’s signature triple, used by the prophet to date his own prophecy. Falsifiable. Specific. Either it will happen or it will not. A prophet who refuses to give himself an escape clause. The careful listener carries the timeline through the destruction songs ahead and feels the prophecy fulfilled when Christ arrives in Act III.

The children are throwing stones because their fathers said so

The song’s quietest political move. The violence is learned, not innate. The next generation has already been corrupted into the hatred their fathers taught them. The future of this city is throwing weapons at the man who came to save it.

By the wounds in his hands

The first time the album names what the Savior will look like when he arrives. He will have wounds. He will be recognizable by them. The careful listener feels Act III approaching. Samuel — the outsider prophet on the wall — is the one who tells the chosen people that Christ will come to this very land.

The message will keep itself

The outro’s quiet thesis. Samuel does not have to enforce his prophecy. The prophecy carries itself forward in time. In five years, history itself will deliver the verdict. The herald can rest. The trumpet has sounded. The work was the announcement, not the reception.