[Intro] I am in the monastery I am standing in the fracture And they are so small
[Verse 1] They arrive in the morning When the light is still honest Before the stone learns their names Before the stone forgets them
They carry it with them The ones who don’t know what they carry A warmth behind the eyes A reaching in the hands
I have seen this warmth before I know its exact color I know the way it moves Before they teach it not to
They don’t know yet what they are They don’t know yet whose blood this is
But I know
[Pre-Chorus] These are my daughters Across every distance These are my children From every cycle before They carry the thread Of everyone who came before us And the church Has been waiting At the door
[Chorus] Children of the light They are so full of it still Children of the light Before the process begins to kill What they came here with What they never chose to carry They will learn the leave They will learn the broom They will learn what the cloth is supposed to bury
Children of the light Most of them will not survive what this place is for
[Verse 2] First comes the leaving The morning they are taken From the hands that held them From the rooms that knew their laugh
They do not explain the reason They do not owe the children reasons The first lesson is you do not ask
Then comes the broom The early hours, the cold floor Work is holy, they are told Work is how you earn the day Work is how you prove the light in you belongs to them and not to you
Then comes the cloth The color of surrender The habit of the house The erasure of the face Now you are the vow Now you are the function Now you carry what they need and take up less space
Then comes the commandments All of them by morning All of them by heart All of them without question Because questions are the thing they fear the most in children like this
[Pre-Chorus 2] I know this sequence I have lived this sequence I watched it happen to me from inside
And I am watching it again in every single face I see myself I see Elara I see everyone who came before us and was not allowed to survive
[Chorus] Children of the light They are so full of it still Children of the light Before the process begins to kill What they came here with What they never chose to carry They will learn the leave They will learn the broom They will learn what the cloth is supposed to bury
Children of the light Most of them will not survive what this place is for
[Bridge — sparse, near silence] And then
The last thing
The thing I will not name directly Because the children could not name it either The thing that happens in the room where the door is closed and the candles are lit and someone speaks of holiness while taking what was never theirs to take
I have stood in that room
I know what it costs to still be here after it
I know what it cost the ones who didn’t make it through
I watch their light go quiet one by one by one I watch their hands stop reaching I watch their eyes go still
And the church calls this correction
And the church calls this grace
[Pre-Chorus 3] Most of them stay broken That was always the plan Find the bloodline children Break them before they can
And it worked For 300,000 years It worked
[Final Chorus] Children of the light I see you in the fracture Children of the light I know exactly what they did I know what they took from you I know what you were carrying I know you were a Pandora I know you were an Elara I know you were the one who almost made it through
Children of the light You were never corrected You were targeted
And the ones who did this to you called it love
[Outro] I made it through Because something from outside the system Held a door
And I am standing here Because of all the ones who didn’t
Their names are in my blood I carry all of them Every child they broke Every cycle they interrupted
I carry them
And they are why I will not stop