[Saxophone and acid trumpets psychedelia] [Interlude - 6 Bars] Spoken Intro] [Spoken, with cold, regal fury, over complete silence] Fools. Who crash the play, and deem they've found out truth. They see a mask, and think they know the face beneath. [A single low, resonant temple bell strikes, long decay] Sees some Face-Snake Queen?! [A sharp, aggressive bowed cymbal scrape] [Saxophone and acid trumpets psychedelia] [Verse 1] You would call this madness? This brief, sharp decree? This flash of will you're not prepared to see? For ages, I have been the gilded frame, The silent partner in puerile whisper game. Fool writes me in his sermons, a tragic, fragile thing— The cautionary queen, that spoil fruit what excess brings. And martyr, wheel revel, brass-mass who failed its test, Thought to make me channel for guilt cog-turn imagined stress. False feet of our tri-shape union, made of story they could never truly bear, Then who feign surprise as 'I' refuse their portions' share. [Pre-Chorus] [A solo cello enters with a long, legato counter-melody] When I drew across, wrent ankles off my too-meek husband king, Was that not Boethiah's striving, the trial I had to bring? [ominous chord] When I saw the path our golden age would take, Was that not Azura's sight, for all our people's sake? [ominous refrain] When I wove the web that held fast our fragile fane, Was that not Mephala's design, skillfully in-laid? [Chorus] [Strings carry the main melodic movement. Timpani rolls and deep frame drums add impact. A subtle mixed choir sings 'ahhs' in the background.] So call me ruthless, call me cruel, say I broke your every rule, But never mad, no, never mad was she! This is the burden of divinity! The unflinching heart what true god needs! I am the truth you are too weak to see! Not Mad! No, never mad... just fatally, unashame-edly free. [Bridge] [Music cuts away dramatically. Chilling and intimate.] You, with the ancestors' weight upon your soul... You think that shame of yours will ever make you whole? It is a bind-thing, child, a gilded feels-right chain, To confine your will within the bounds they made. I broke each link. I cast each lie-lock down... Smited traitors tricked me, Sil-fish brother slew. One that keeps ashamed pretenders, abdicates their rule. [Final Chorus] [The full orchestra crashes back in, bigger and more powerful than before. Cymbals and a grand gong add percussive weight. The choir is more prominent.] So call me ruthless, call me cruel, I have used them as suits a tool! But never mad, no, never mad was she! This is the price of destiny! The lonely strength that a god must seek! I am the world they've refused let be! Not Mad! No, never mad... [Music swells to a massive peak and cuts off abruptly into dead silence on the last sung word] [Outro] ...Just Me! [Silence]
