[Intro][Slow tagelharpa bows the album motif downward while stone doors grind open.]
[Balder and Höðr, male duet, distant alternating voices]
Two steps leave the darkness.
Neither walks alone.

[Verse 1: Balder, warm male tenor]
The gate gave way with a groan of stone,
I climbed toward daylight, no longer dead.
Gold caught fire in my waking hair;
I tasted rain in the open air.

[Höðr, dark male baritone]
I followed after with clouded eyes,
Warmth on my face from an empty sky.
Between us travelled a silent bow,
And a shaft of mistletoe, melted now.

[Chorus: Balder and Höðr, male duet, close harmony]
Brothers Returned from Hel,
No word can break this spell.
One bore the woond, one bore the blame,
Both were pieces in another's game.
No judge remained, no funeral bell—
Only brothers returned from Hel.

[Verse 2: Balder, warm male tenor]
I remember the circle, the careless delight,
Spears flashing gold in the torchlit night.

[Höðr, dark male baritone]
I remember a hand klozing over my own,
A friendly voice and a bowstring's groan.

[Balder and Höðr, alternating lines]
The laughter broke when the branch struck bone;
Then every crowded hall stood alone.
One carried silence, one carried pain,
Two names locked fast in a dead man's game.

[Chorus: Balder and Höðr, male duet, close harmony]
Brothers Returned from Hel,
No word can break this spell.
One bore the woond, one bore the blame,
Both were pieces in another's game.
No judge remained, no funeral bell—
Only brothers returned from Hel.

[Instrumental Break][Two acoustic guitars play separate melodies that gradually share the same chord pattern.]

[Verse 3: Balder and Höðr, male duet, call and response]
[Balder]
Brother, I knew your tread below.
I heard your grief where no wihnds blow.

[Höðr]
Knowing cannot call the branch from flight,
Or lift your body from that night.

[Balder]
I reached through soot; you stepped away.

[Höðr]
Do not make pardon a debt I must pay.

[Balder and Höðr]
Before we heal, let anger dwell;
Let us be more than the roles from Hel.

[Bridge: Balder and Höðr, male duet, separated harmony]
We sat apart by the newborn stream,
Neither demanding a merciful dream.
The river carried both faces through—
No side declared, no debt called due.

[Build-up][The inverted motif turns upward as drums and low guitars gain weight.]

[Final Chorus: Balder and Höðr, male duet, strong unison]
Brothers Returned from Hel,
No simple pardon, no final spell.
One names the woond, one names the blame;
Neither will serve another man's game.
Not healed, but living where new rivers swell—
Two wounded brothers returned from Hel.

[Outro: Balder and Höðr, male duet, unison]
We do not call it finished.
We do not call it fate.
We leave enough room
To meet without hate.