—
[Verse 1] The dark inside the castle was a mercy The silence past the gate — a different kind They could hear the Seven at the threshold Counting all the time they left behind
(Priest, barely): They’re waiting (Elara): Let them wait. -----Are you alright? (Priest): ----I need to tell you something
[Pre-Chorus] He had carried it since before the trenches Before the teacher fell, before the gates He had carried it like something borrowed And he could not keep it any longer — it was weight
[Chorus] We knew We all knew What they did to her — what they did to you We said nothing We were nothing We let them take what was never theirs to use I knew God forgive me — I knew
[Verse 2] The church that broke her was not built in secret The hands that took you were not shadows in the night He watched them write the doctrine of her ending And he stood beside it in the light
(Priest, breaking): You were never chosen — -------you were taken (Priest): She was never fallen — ------she was made (Elara, quiet): I know. (Priest): No. You cannot know. (Priest): And I have to say it anyway.
[Chorus] We knew We all knew What they did to her — what they did to you We said nothing We were nothing We let them take what was never theirs to use I knew God forgive me — I knew
[Bridge] And then the dark in the castle moved And the cold in the room became still And a face appeared that no words could explain And everything the Priest had said — went quiet
(ANU, ancient, calm): Child. (ANU): You are not of this plane. (ANU): I know — because I delivered you. -------In all your planes. (ANU): You and your sister. -----Sometimes you. ------Sometimes her. (ANU): But never — together.
(Elara, barely): Not even in death? (ANU, gentle): Especially then.
[Verse 3] He showed her what the ring was made to carry The half that split — a thread between two planes A door between two daughters, two directions And somewhere on her — was the other half — her name
(Elara, searching): I left it — I had to leave the camp so fast — (Priest, urgent): The Seven won’t wait forever — (ANU, calm): Wear it. Call Polaris. Think of her. (Elara, lost): I don’t — I don’t have it
[Chorus] She knew Somehow she knew What she left behind before she even flew Sent nothing Sent something Sent the part of her that always followed you A ring A raven A thread between two people who were never meant to —
[Outro] A sound from the far end of the hall Not a step, not a voice — a wing And it landed on the stone before her And it opened — what it carried —
(Elara, breaking open): …the ring.
(beat)
(Elara, whispering): She knew.
(silence — then distantly — seven voices at the gate — but softer now — like even they felt something shift)