[Intro — sparse, cold, a single note held long]
[Verse 1]
He liked things in their correct place
Everything has a correct place
Even destruction
Especially destruction
He liked knowing what was coming
Before it arrived
What it would do before it did it
What it would cost before the bill
You cannot eclipse order
If you do not know
Exactly
Where order stands
[Pre-Chorus]
Historia said: there is a crew in the fold
Moving through the levels
Disorder said: which crew
She said: the one with the light
He said: I know which one — how many
She said: eight
He said: (quietly)(very quietly) fine
[Chorus]
Eclipse of order
Not the end of the system
The moment before the end
When the light bends
And what was certain becomes a question
Eclipse of order
Disorder does not break things
Disorder understands things
Precisely — perfectly
And then decides exactly where to press
[Verse 2]
Historia had a gift
She knew things the way old stone knows weather
She said: there is someone in that crew who should not be there
He carries knowledge that does not belong to the living
The kind that takes three hundred thousand years to accumulate
He has it — all of it
And he is not old enough to have earned it
(how)(that is the question)
(who gave it to him)(that is a better question)
[Pre-Chorus 2]
And then a message arrived from the other direction
Chaos has a crew
(how many)(five)
Havoc (yes) Ruin (yes) Mayhem (yes)
Disorder set the message down
He straightened it on the table — precisely
He aligned the corners
(are you alright)(I am fine)
(you are aligning the corners)(I am always fine)
(you have aligned them four times)(Historia)(yes)(I am fine)
[Bridge — Historia speaks carefully]
She said: I have searched every record
Every account of how knowledge moves through the cosmos
He said: and
She said: there is only one name
That appears in the margin of every account
Where something impossible happened anyway
He said: what name
She said: Initium Finis
(the room went still)
She said: I think he is the reason
That man is alive
And carrying everything he carries
(silence)(very long silence)
(Disorder straightened the message again)
[Final Chorus]
Eclipse of order
Initium Finis — the one who only watches — watched
And then did something
And now there is a dead man walking through the fold
With three hundred thousand years of knowledge in his hands
Eclipse of order
If Initium Finis moved after three hundred thousand years of only watching
Then something is happening that has not happened before
And Disorder intends to know what it is
Before the light does
[Outro]
He stood
He said: send word to Chaos
Historia said: what word
He said: tell him to try not to break everything before I get there
(she wrote it down)(exactly as he said it)(for once)(the notes were perfect)