[Intro]
I am the floor beneath the feast,
I am the field beneath the beast.
I take the pain they will not name,
I pass it on through root and frame.

[Verse 1]
A green drop falls in a cave below,
I feel it where black roots grow.
Granite knuckles grind and strain,
Rivers skip like startled veins.
Barn doors clap in midnight gust,
Swords fall loose from hooks of rust.
Children wake with salt on lips,
Hearthstones jump and roof beams split.

[Pre-Chorus]
They call it tremor, chance, or weather,
But I hold gods and graves together.
What they bury, what they bind,
I carry under humankind.

[Chorus]
The earth takes the pain, the earth takes the pain,
Under the frost, under the grain.
What falls in the cave will rise in the plain,
The earth takes the pain again and again.

[Verse 2]
I felt the cord of murdered kin,
I felt the serpent's venom grin.
I felt Sigyn's footsteps turn,
Too late to spare the mountain burn.
The plough broke short in frozen clay,
The oxen would not face the day.
A king swore peace with a silver hand,
Then sold his brother for borderland.

[Chorus]
The earth takes the pain, the earth takes the pain,
Under the frost, under the grain.
What falls in the cave will rise in the plain,
The earth takes the pain again and again.

[Bridge]
Do not ask why valleys open,
Do not ask why towers lean.
Ask what vows were cut and broken,
Ask what justice chose to mean.

[Instrumental Break][Floor toms imitate deep ground-shudders under slow tremolo chords.]

[Final Chorus]
The earth takes the pain, the earth takes the pain,
Under the frost, under the grain.
What falls in the cave will rise in the plain,
The earth takes the pain again and again.
The earth takes the pain, but not the blame,
It speaks in cracks and winter rain.

[Outro]
Beneath each hall, beneath each throne,
The world remembers bone by bone.
