[Intro][Frame drum taps in 7/8 beneath a dry bone flute phrase; female seer voice enters close and breathy.]

[Verse 1][Male Vocal: Narrator]
He walked where the well kept a lid of black glass,
Where roots drank iron and memory passed.
The seer sat folded in smoke and clay,
Her mouth full of winter, her hair full of gray.
“Ask,” said the silence, “but pay with your peace,”
The ravens went quiet, the wind seemed to cease.
Odin leaned forward, one eye like a nail,
And heard future teeth scrape the rim of the veil.

[Pre-Chorus][Male Vocal: Narrator]
Ash on her fingers, ash on his tongue,
The song of the ending had already begun.

[Chorus][Gang Vocals]
The Seer’s Ash falls white on the king,
White on the cup, white on the ring.
The Seer’s Ash says blood will return,
Bury the child and the burial will burn.

[Verse 2][Female Vocal: Seer]
“She who is half-corpse will govern the deep,
The wolf will wake where the oath-makers sleep.
The sea will wear scales, the sky will wear red,
Your spear will be useless among your own dead.”
[Male Vocal: Narrator]
Odin stood silent; his knuckles went pale,
The hall in his mind became fetter and jail.
He counted three cradles, three mouths, and one flame,
Then called it wisdom to fear them by name.

[Pre-Chorus][Male Vocal: Narrator]
Ash in the water, ash in the breath,
A fatherly kingdom rehearsing death.

[Chorus][Gang Vocals]
The Seer’s Ash falls white on the king,
White on the cup, white on the ring.
The Seer’s Ash says blood will return,
Bury the child and the burial will burn.

[Instrumental Break][Tagelharpa scratches the three-note motif while guitars hold dissonant chords.]

[Bridge][Male Vocal: Narrator]
A prophecy spoken is never a stone,
It grows in the hands that clutch it alone.
He saw the wolf—then forged the bite,
He feared the dark—then fed it night.

[Breakdown][Gang Vocals]
Name them danger.
Name them sin.
Build the cage.
Put childhood in.

[Final Chorus][Gang Vocals]
The Seer’s Ash falls white on the king,
White on the cup, white on the ring.
The Seer’s Ash says blood will return,
Bury the child and the burial will burn.
The Seer’s Ash still clings to his hand,
White as a law over blackening land.

[Outro][Male Vocal: Narrator]
The well closed softly, the roots held tight,
Odin climbed home with tomorrow’s knife.
No horn had sounded, no corpse-birds sang,
But the first small link of the fetter rang.