[Intro]
[Rapid bayss and organ descend beneath five clipped hurdy-gurdy notes.]
Reed them quickly, reed them whole—
Letters loosen from the scroll.
Speak them once before they’re gone;
Stone forgets by coming dawn.

[Verse 1]
King Edric, Queen Maelle, Prince Coran the Thin,
Names cut deep where the gold leaf had been.
Mara reed each title as custom required,
While letters dropped loose like moths from a fire.
An E became dust, then an R lost its line,
A queen became blank by the third warning sign.
Tomas held the dice in their burial wrap;
Every red corner made another name snap.

[Pre-Chorus]
Veyr heard a voice through the mortar and lime:
[Choir]
“Debtor, you bring me the alphabet’s spine.”
[Narrator]
He pressed both palms to his horn-shadowed head—
But the sealed mouths around him spoke instead.

[Chorus]
There are names beneath the stone, but the stone has learned to feed,
Chewing through the titles, swallowing the deed.
Name a child, name a kingdom, name the hand that brings it down—
When the letters leave the coffin, who inherits crown and ground?
There are names beneath the stone, growing thinner as we tread;
The dice do not kill memory—they teach it to forget the dead.

[Verse 2]
Veyr lagged behind at a door marked nine,
Where a horned hand matched his own, sign for sign.
His patron had branded that palm years before,
Promising power for one nameless war.
[Choir]
“Deliver the dice and your debt becomes air.
Refuse, and your companions will pay out their share.”
[Narrator]
He answered in silence and tightened his glove,
For devils price hatred more cheaply than love.

[Pre-Chorus]
Lark doubled back with a torch held low:
[Lark]
“You rhyme with ‘betrayer’ wherever we go.”
[Narrator]
Veyr showed him the wall where his contract burned—
[Veyr]
“Then write me an ending my master has not learned.”

[Chorus]
There are names beneath the stone, but the stone has learned to feed,
Chewing through the titles, swallowing the deed.
Name a child, name a kingdom, name the hand that brings it down—
When the letters leave the coffin, who inherits crown and ground?
There are names beneath the stone, growing thinner as we tread;
The dice do not kill memory—they teach it to forget the dead.

[Instrumental]
[Twin guitars race against organ arpeggios while engraved consonants fall in percussive stone taps.]

[Verse 3]
They reached the last tomb, its surface bare,
Yet five fresh silhouettes waited there.
One held an axe and one held a lyre,
One wore no crest, one carried blue fire.
The smallest shape had no face at all,
Only silver numbers cut in the wall.
[Mara]
“Someone has measured our bones.”
[Narrator]
Veyr said nothing of the voice in the stones.

[Bridge]
A name is a door that the living defend,
A thread from the cradle, a mark at the end.
A name can be cursed, inherited, sold—
But nameless obedience is easier to hold.
Veyr carved his own name as a final, mute plea;
The wall drank three letters and left him the V.

[Final Chorus]
There are names beneath the stone, and our names have joined the feast,
Fed into a corridor that wakes some buried beast.
Name the oathless paladin, the singer, mage and shield;
Name the horned man walking with the master unrevealed.
There are names beneath the stone, but the final slab is bare—
Five shapes without inscriptions and a sixth shape waiting there.
They fled before the alphabet could strip their voices clean,
While Veyr hid one surviving letter where his name had been.

[Outro]
Behind them, royal titles fell
One by one into the well.
The organ stopped; the darkness spoke:
“Bring me the dice. Complete the yoke.”