[Intro][A low bass pulse answers creaking roots while acoustic guitar repeats three descending notes.]
[Odin Root Voice, deep distorted male bass, whispered]
Set down the gold.
Come klohs to the grain.

[Verse 1: Narrator, low male baritone]
We reached the ash at the klohs of day,
New leaves silver, old trunk grey.
Vee-tharr laid down the pouch of gold;
The bark drew inward, wrinkled and old.
Under his palm, through fibre and mud,
A voice moved slowly like winter in blood.

[Pre-Chorus: Narrator, restrained tension]
It knew the scar on his leather shoe,
Knew every vengeance he carried through.
It spoke his childhood name in the dark—
No stranger lived in the breathing bark.

[Chorus: Survivors, mixed ensemble, tense unison]
The Voice Beneath the Roots
Names every woond as truth.
It offers a crown and a guide;
It feeds on the fear we carry inside.
Young tree, old hunger bearing fruits—
Who owns the voice beneath the roots?

[Verse 2: Odin Root Voice, deep distorted male bass]
Son, the world is unmade.
Mercy is soft; the wolf is not stayed.
Set down the pieces in proper array;
Raise me a seat and I will show the way.
Without one watcher, one law, one head,
The green earth soon will envy the dead.

[Pre-Chorus: Narrator, rising tension]
Gold in the pouch began to ring,
Pawn against tower and queen against king.
Myohl-neer answered from Mag-nee's side,
And every survivor felt something divide.

[Chorus: Survivors, mixed ensemble, tense unison]
The Voice Beneath the Roots
Names every woond as truth.
It offers a crown and a guide;
It feeds on the fear we carry inside.
Young tree, old hunger bearing fruits—
Who owns the voice beneath the roots?

[Instrumental Break][Low guitars grind against bowed tagelharpa while the three-note motif repeatedly tries to rise.]

[Verse 3: Narrator, low male baritone]
Balder heard father; Hoh-thur heard the dead.
Vah-lee heard order; Moh-thee heard dread.
Mag-nee held Myohl-neer but made no blow;
Vee-tharr leaned in as the root pulse slowed.
The bark split open; red sap bled,
Bright as an eye on the face of the dead.

[Bridge: Odin Root Voice, intimate distorted whisper]
Build me no body—only a chair.
Speak what I teach you; I will be there.
Call it remembrance, counsel or root;
Power need never announce its fruit.

[Breakdown: Narrator, half-time spoken baritone]
A father enters a son through a word.
Memory stays when the mouth is burned.
The root held hunger; hunger held need.
A throne took shape in the shell of a seed.

[Final Chorus: Survivors, mixed ensemble, full power]
The Voice Beneath the Roots
Names every fear and dresses it as truth.
It offers protection, measured and wide,
Then asks which hand must stand aside.
No axe was lifted, no answer complete—
The old world had spoken beneath our feet.

[Outro: Odin Root Voice, fading whisper]
Deep in the timber:
Order the gold.
High in the branches,
New leaves turned cold.
