[Verse 1]
They arrive without announcement
Seven figures at the garden’s edge
Not the way that power moves through doorways
More like light that settles on a ledge
I know them before they speak their names
I carry every version of the world they kept
And they look at me the way the tired look
At the one who finally woke while they still slept
[Pre-Chorus]
They are not afraid
They are not grieving
They came in peace with nothing left to prove
Something in their faces says:
We waited for this
We just wanted to see you before we moved
[Chorus]
Remnants of the past
Standing in my garden
Humble, kind, and patient at the door
Everything they carried
Now belongs to no one
The old names cannot hold the world anymore
Remnants of the past
Content to be departing
They came to say the thing they needed to say
I am what they built for
I am what they stayed for
And now — they’re going to go away
[Verse 2]
Humility bows first — she does not speak
She only lowers her head and steps aside
Charity takes both her hands and gives them
Then turns and walks into the morning light
Patience stands the longest — of course she does
She spent three hundred thousand years in wait
Diligence places something in the garden
A seed — then nods and walks out through the gate
Chastity leaves nothing — she just smiles
Temperance tips the scales and lets them rest
And Kindness — Kindness is the last to leave
She touches my face and says: you know the rest
[Pre-Chorus 2]
They are not broken
They are not erasing
They are handing me the weight they chose to bear
And the garden holds their outline for a moment
Then the morning takes them gently into air
[Chorus]
Remnants of the past
Standing in my garden
Humble, kind, and patient at the door
Everything they carried
Now belongs to no one
The old names cannot hold the world anymore
Remnants of the past
Content to be departing
They came to say the thing they needed to say
I am what they built for
I am what they stayed for
And now — they’re going to go away
[Bridge — SOLARA alone in the garden after]
The order needs new names
The order always needed new names
The old ones held it long enough to reach me
Now it falls to me
To find the ones who carry what was theirs
I do not know them yet
I do not know their faces
I do not know if kindness calls itself by kind
But the Raven is still here
And the tree still holds the morning
And the garden says: you have the time
[Final Chorus]
Remnants of the past
Now just a memory settling
Seven figures walking into light
Everything they gave me
Everything they carried
Is the reason I know how to hold it right
Remnants of the past —
Content.
Complete.
Departing.
[Outro — the garden after. Quiet. The Raven shifts on the branch.]
Seven names.
Seven farewells.
One garden.
And somewhere out there —
Seven new ones
Who don’t know yet
That they have been chosen.