[Intro][Fast muted guitars strike in groups of three over tom accents; Loki enters with a bitter close male vocal.]

[Verse 1][Male Vocal: Loki]
They came back quiet from the salt-black rock,
No boast in the throat, no praise in the walk.
Týr hid the stump in a wolf-bit sleeve,
Odin said nothing and ordered them to leave.
I saw the ribbon in a red little coil,
Soft as a child’s hair, wet as soil.
No sword had sung, no shield had rung,
Yet the worst of their war had already begun.

[Pre-Chorus][Male Vocal: Loki]
Blood on the fabric, blood on the floor,
Fear got a victory and opened a door.

[Chorus][Male Vocal: Loki with Gang Vocals]
Blood on the Ribbon, red on the thread,
You chained a living child and crowned the dread.
Blood on the Ribbon, law on a lie,
The wolf remembers what the gods deny.

[Verse 2][Male Vocal: Loki]
Fenrir was howling where no hall could hear,
Týr carried silence where praise should appear.
I tasted the name of each face in the room,
Each careful mouth, each polished doom.
[Male Vocal: Odin]
“Peace,” said the All-Father, “order must hold,”
[Male Vocal: Loki]
But order looked hungry, and mercy looked old.
My children were scattered by water and frost,
And now one more brother was counted as lost.

[Pre-Chorus][Male Vocal: Loki]
Blood on the bargain, blood on the claim,
A family burns when you govern by shame.

[Chorus][Male Vocal: Loki with Gang Vocals]
Blood on the Ribbon, red on the thread,
You chained a living child and crowned the dread.
Blood on the Ribbon, law on a lie,
The wolf remembers what the gods deny.

[Guitar Solo][A jagged lead line cuts between gang-shouted hook fragments.]

[Bridge][Male Vocal: Loki]
I was the joke when the mead ran sweet,
The clever tongue at the high god’s feet.
Now every laugh has a nail inside,
Every oath has learned how to hide.

[Breakdown][Gang Vocals]
Say it was needed.
Say it was wise.
Say it was mercy.
Look in my eyes.

[Build-up][Male Vocal: Loki]
Hel hears footsteps under the root,
Jörmungandr tightens around the blue.
Fenrir breathes dark with a blood-wet chain,
And I count your crowns by the weight of pain.

[Final Chorus][Male Vocal: Loki with Gang Vocals]
Blood on the Ribbon, red on the thread,
You chained a living child and crowned the dread.
Blood on the Ribbon, law on a lie,
The wolf remembers what the gods deny.
Blood on the Ribbon, bright as the dawn,
Every bond you broke will be answered in song.

[Outro][Male Vocal: Loki]
Týr would not meet me beside the flame,
Odin washed nothing from his name.
The cord stayed pale where the blood dried brown,
And laughter died in the golden town.