[Verse 1]
The garden was still
I thought I knew everything
I thought the hand he gave me
Was the end of what there was to learn
But knowledge doesn’t announce itself
It arrives the way a cold does
Not a door — a temperature
Something in the air begins to turn
And I feel it
The way you feel something
Before you have the name for it
Not a sound
More like the absence of a sound
In a place that should be full
[Pre-Chorus]
He held my hand at the edge of the universe
And I thought he only gave me rest
But you cannot take the hand of what was The One
Without taking all the rest
Everything he carried
Everything he had been warned of
Everything he never wanted me to find
He gave it all
Because that is what the transfer is
He gave me everything
Including this
[Chorus]
Across space and time
Something is being born
Not the dream I saw at the edge of my sight
Something older
Something that does not have light
Across space and time
Order has an opposite
Every One that rises
Pulls the Hollow from the dark
Across space and time —
I feel it breathing
I feel it finding its shape
I feel it start
THE HOLLOW.
Disorder.
Chaos.
It knows my name
Before I know its face
[Verse 2]
The symmetry is terrible
And perfect
Every dream that wakes
Casts a shadow it cannot see
Every One that holds the order
Has a mirror in the breaking
Not an enemy —
A counterweight
A necessity
I am the One
And so the Hollow is
I am the order held together
And so the disorder breathes
This is not a war
Not yet
Not something I can name a threat
But somewhere across space and time
In the dark between the edges
Something that is not the dream
That has no light
Is becoming
[Pre-Chorus 2]
He sat with me at the edge of the universe
He looked at me with something like relief
He took my hand and I thought:
This is closure
But closure never comes without the thing
You have to keep
[Chorus]
Across space and time
Something is being born
Not the dream I saw at the edge of my sight
Something older
Something that does not have light
Across space and time
Order has an opposite
Every One that rises
Pulls the Hollow from the dark
Across space and time —
I feel it breathing
I feel it finding its shape
I feel it start
[Bridge — the weight of inheritance]
Three hundred thousand years
He carried this beside the order
Three hundred thousand years
He never let it tip
Every One before him
Carried the same knowledge
Every One before him
Kept the same grip
This is what the throne is
Not a seat
Not a title
Not a crown
This is what the throne is:
You hold the order in one hand
And in the other hand
You hold the knowledge
Of the thing that wants to pull it down
And you do not let go
Of either
[Final Chorus — darker, larger, certain]
Across space and time
Something is being born
Not the dream I saw at the edge of my sight
Something older
Something that does not have light
Across space and time
Order has its opposite
Every One that rises
Pulls the Hollow from the dark
Across space and time —
I feel it breathing
And I am not afraid
I am The One
And The One
Does not let go
[Outro — dark. The garden is still but colder now.]
THE HOLLOW.
Somewhere.
Across space and time.
The Raven opens one eye.
And I understand now
Why the one before me
Never stopped looking.