[Intro]
[Bass guitar and low organ trade a stalking chromatic riff.]

[Verse 1]
Inside the dead man’s coat I found a roll,
Bound with the black wax of the council’s seal.
No battle plans, no count of grain or coal—
A staged disaster stamped as common weal.
“Awaken beast. Ignite the eastern farms.
Display the dead. Recruit beneath alarm.”
Each line was clean, each murder duly filed,
A kingdom’s fear arranged and reconciled.

[Council Choir]
Give them a fang, give them a flame,
Give them a creature to carry the blame.
Give them a funeral, ration the grain—
Fear builds a kingdom that governs through pain.

[Chorus]
There are wolves in the council hall,
Wearing the robes of the laws they maul.
They do not fear that the kingdom may fall—
They fear we may learn who weakened the wall.
There are wolves in the council hall,
Counting the graves before bodies fall.

[Verse 2]
The Regent’s notes described the mountain gate,
The oil, the chains, the hour and chosen bait.
They held old Yrsa for the rune she knew;
Her blood would make the ancient threshold true.
A margin bore the royal healer’s hand:
“The ice below is moving through the land.”
The nameless winter, sealed in years before,
Was rising while they manufactured war.

[Pre-Chorus]
I had one sword that bent against their steel,
One stolen page no search had yet revealed.
Yet every lie inside that council room
Had left a trail that pointed to its tomb.

[Chorus]
There are wolves in the council hall,
Wearing the robes of the laws they maul.
They do not fear that the kingdom may fall—
They fear we may learn who weakened the wall.
There are wolves in the council hall,
Counting the graves before bodies fall.

[Guitar Solo]
[Angular twin leads circle the council riff before breaking into the horn motif.]

[Confrontation - Haldren, Council and Ivar, alternating]
[Haldren]
“A frightened crowd will beg to wear a chain.”
[Council]
“Call order mercy, call obedience sane.”
[Haldren]
“When Vaelgrim burns, the old belief will die.”
[Ivar]
“A wolf grows bold when no one names the lie.”

[Breakdown]
Not every monster carries claw or scale.
Some sharpen laws and call the prison safe.
Some burn the farms, then promise grain for sale.
Some write the verdict first—and stage the grave.

[Final Chorus]
There are wolves in the council hall,
But ink has travelled beyond their wall.
They planned the smoke, they prepared the call;
They built their throne from a measured fall.
There are wolves in the council hall—
And I know now which wolf commands them all.

[Outro]
I turned the page toward the mountain snow:
The truth had found its enemy: Haldren.
