[Intro — Elara following the sight, finding something she was never supposed to see] The sight takes her somewhere She has never been
But she recognizes it
The way you recognize a room you have been kept out of
[Verse 1 — the Order, the training, the ones before her] There are names on the wall
She did not know there were names on the wall
She thought it was a list of the honored The ones who came before The ones the Order remembers With candles and ceremony On the third day of winter
She looks closer
They are not honored
They are counted
[Pre-Chorus] There is a girl Who trained in the same room she trained in Who held the same sword Who learned the same scripture Who prayed the same morning prayer Before the testing began
She did not survive the testing
There is another girl Before her Who did not survive the journey south
There is another Before her Who did not survive the winter training
There is another Before her Who did not survive at all
[Chorus] The Order of the Light Does not make one The Order of the Light Makes many And keeps the one who does not break
She was not chosen She was not the dawn She was not the sword fate made She was the sword that did not shatter when they tested it
The Order of the Light Does not remember the ones who did not make it through It just starts again with the next one
[Verse 2 — she sees what the testing actually was] She sees a girl Being asked to carry something Too heavy for the body To teach the body to carry it anyway
She sees a girl Being asked to stand In the cold Until the standing becomes the answer
She sees a girl Being asked to choose Between the mission and the person beside her To teach her That the mission is always the answer
She sees a girl Who gave the wrong answer
She sees where they put her
She sees what they called it
She sees the name on the wall
[Pre-Chorus 2] And she sees herself In every single one of them
She sees the morning she almost gave the wrong answer And didn’t
Not because she was stronger Not because she was chosen Not because the light lived in her in some particular way it did not live in them
Because she was lucky
And the next girl was not
[Chorus] The Order of the Light Does not make one The Order of the Light Makes many And keeps the one who does not break
She was not chosen She was not the dawn She was not the sword fate made She was the sword that did not shatter when they tested it
The Order of the Light Does not remember the ones who did not make it through It just starts again with the next one
[Bridge — the full weight of it landing] She counts the names
She counts them slowly
Because they deserve to be counted slowly
Because they trained in the same rooms They held the same sword They prayed the same prayer They believed the same thing she believed
That they were chosen
That the light in them was specific was singular was the reason they were here
And the Order let them believe it
Because a girl who believes she is chosen trains harder
Dies quieter when she doesn’t make it
Becomes a name on a wall that the next chosen girl is never shown
[Pre-Chorus 3 — the full shattering] She was the chosen one
She was the sun The dawn The light the world needed
She was the sword the church spent three hundred years sharpening She was never going to fail
She was never going to fail because she was going to be replaced the moment she did
[Final Chorus] The Order of the Light Kept making swords Until one of them Held
And the one that held Was told: You are the chosen You are the dawn You are the reason the light survived
And she believed it
God help her she believed it
And the names on the wall behind her the names she was never shown the girls she never knew who trained in the same room and did not make it out
They believed it too
Every single one of them Believed it Until they didn’t
Until they couldn’t
[Outro — Elara standing in front of the wall] She does not count the names out loud
She just stands there
And she thinks: I am the sword that held
And she thinks: I am the sword
And she thinks: I am just the sword
And somewhere behind her the names do not need her to understand They already knew