[Intro]
[Open-string guitars strike in half-time beneath a low descending lead answer.]

[Verse 1 - Clerk, Male Lead]
He found me in the archive with the shutters fastened tight,
The false confession open in the candle’s yellow light.

[Verse 1B - Witchfinder, Low Male Voice]
He placed a purse beside the book and rested both his hands:
“You have the skill to serve the court in wealthier towns and lands.
The senior clerk is old and weak; his chair will soon be free.
The magistrate respects a man who writes efficiently.
There is one obstruction left, one witness to contain—
The innkeeper saw too much. We need one final name.”

[Chorus - Clerk, Male Lead]
What is the price of one more name?
A warmer room, a post well paid?
A silver clasp, a safer door,
A promise I will fear no more?
The bargain sounds so small and plain—
Until a living face becomes the price of one more name.

[Verse 2 - Witchfinder, Low Male Voice]
“He served the prisoners after dusk. He mocked the preacher’s word.
He hid a woman in his shed—or so a boy has heard.
He keeps accounts in foreign marks. He travels after dark.
A clever clerk can build a charge from any modest spark.”

[Verse 2B - Clerk, Male Lead]
I knew the man had seen the book of confiscated fields;
He knew which judge received the mill, which guard received the wheels.

[Verse 2C - Witchfinder, Low Male Voice]
The witchfinder pushed the silver purse an inch across the grain:
“Protect the court that shelters you. Supply one useful name.”

[Pre-Chorus - Witchfinder, Low Male Voice]
Say the inn was warm too late.
Say he cursed the church and state.
Say a stranger crossed his floor.
The court will manufacture more.

[Chorus - Clerk, Male Lead]
What is the price of one more name?
A warmer room, a post well paid?
A silver clasp, a safer door,
A promise I will fear no more?
The bargain sounds so small and plain—
Until a living face becomes the price of one more name.

[Breakdown - Clerk and Witchfinder Duet]
Witchfinder: “Write.”
Clerk: “I need a claim.”
Witchfinder: “Write.”
Clerk: “I know his name.”
Witchfinder: “Write.”
Clerk: “The charge is thin.”
Witchfinder: “Write—and you remain within.”

[Guitar Solo]
[Two guitars circle the same phrase, one descending and one refusing to resolve.]

[Bridge - Clerk, Male Lead]
I saw the room they offered me,
A polished desk, a larger key.
I saw myself survive the year
By placing one more neighbour here.
Then Peter’s unrecorded truth
Returned as sharply as reproof:
A hand is never merely led
Once it begins to number dead.

[Break - Clerk, Male Lead]
I took the purse.
I felt its weight.
I wrote the date.
I left one space.

[Final Chorus - Clerk, Male Lead]
That was the price of one more name:
To feel the coin and know the shame.
I kept the purse but spared the door;
The bargain could not rule me more.
That was the price of one more name—
To see myself inside their frame.
I left the accusation bare:
An empty line beneath the price of one more name.

[Outro - Clerk and Witchfinder Duet]
Witchfinder: “Empty lines invite suspicion.”
Clerk: “So do men who fear what ink may show.”