[Intro — Elara expecting the enemy, finding something else] She has heard the name her whole life
The Purple Malice The dark castle The one who commands the war
She follows the sight Through the fracture Through the years
She finds the castle
She finds the room
And she stops
[Verse 1 — the room, the woman kneeling] The room is very quiet
The candles are low The kind of low that means no one has tended them for a long time
And she is on the floor
Not on the throne Not at the window Not at the table with the maps
On the floor
And her hands are in her lap And her head is down And she is not commanding anything She is not planning anything She is just sitting in the quiet of a castle that has emptied around her and trying to breathe
[Pre-Chorus] The companions are outside
She can hear them Moving slowly Like people who are trying to give someone a room to fall apart in without being seen
They have not left
That is everything about them in four words
They have not left
[Chorus] The Purple Malice Is on her knees tonight The Purple Malice Is alone in the half-light And Elara Came here looking for the war And found a woman who does not want this any more than she does
The Purple Malice Has no army in this room The Purple Malice Has no power she can use Just the weight of what is coming Just the cost she’s already paid Just a woman on the cold floor Of a castle she is going to lose
[Verse 2 — Elara watching her understand what’s been asked of her] She is not crying
She is past the crying part She is in the place after crying Where the body just sits with the truth of the thing because there is nowhere else to put it
The battle is coming
She knows the battle is coming She has known for a long time And she does not believe in it She does not believe in the south being wrong Or the north being right Or the church Or the light Or the border they drew on the map she never agreed to
She only believes in this: if she does not go to the battle her people will go without her and die for nothing instead of dying for her
And she cannot live with dying for nothing
So she will go
[Pre-Chorus 2] And Elara watches her decide this
Watches the moment she stops weighing it
The moment the floor becomes the last floor she lets herself fall apart on
And she stands up
Slowly
And she is the Purple Malice again
And outside the companions start moving because they can feel the weight shift in the room
[Chorus] The Purple Malice Is on her knees tonight The Purple Malice Is alone in the half-light And Elara Came here looking for the war And found a woman who does not want this any more than she does
The Purple Malice Has no army in this room The Purple Malice Has no power she can use Just the weight of what is coming Just the cost she’s already paid Just a woman on the cold floor Of a castle she is going to lose
[Bridge — Elara’s recognition, the shattering] She knows this floor
She has been on this floor
Not the castle floor Not this stone But the floor inside the chest Where you go when you have understood the full cost of the thing and you cannot make it smaller and you cannot put it down and you cannot go back to not knowing
She was on that floor When she understood what the church had made her
And she is watching a woman who was made the same way
By different hands Toward a different weapon But the same making
And the worst part the part that undoes everything the part that the church and the council and the Riders and the Seven never wanted her to know
is that this woman kneeling on the cold floor of the castle they call evil
Did not choose it either
[Pre-Chorus 3 — barely holding] And Elara thinks:
I was sent to stop you
And then she thinks:
Who sent you to this floor
[Final Chorus] The Purple Malice Was never what they said The Purple Malice Was a woman who was used instead And Elara She was built to be the sword And she is standing in the fracture And her sword will not lift anymore
The Purple Malice And Elara Dawn Two weapons Aimed at each other By the ones who built them both And one of them is watching And one of them is standing And neither of them Chose this at all
[Outro — the quiet after the fracture] She watches Adonpra walk to the window
She watches her look out at the south At the land she is about to defend By doing the thing she does not want to do
And Elara understands in a way she cannot name
that she has been angry at the wrong people for a very long time
The companions outside keep watch
Nobody inside needs to know that she is already broken
Just like Elara
Was already broken
Before she understood why