Beneath the garden (The Heartroot Vault)

[Intro — Narrator | single low cello note | hushed dark folk baritone | close-mic] Beneath the garden Beneath the flowers Beneath the roots that feed the sky — Something the city was built around Has been waiting In the dark To be found [Verse 1 — Auriel | breathy intimate soprano | Celtic harp arpeggios | awed and frightened] The roots go deeper than my maps The gears go quiet where I stand I followed cracks in the foundation Down to where no light has been The flowers thin to copper filament The air tastes cold and sharp and bright And in the hollow heart of everything I find a door That shouldn't exist This far from light [Petal Spirits — child choir | distant minor unison | harmonizing beneath Auriel] She found it She found it The one who carries copper fire She found the door Below the root Below desire [Pre-Chorus — Auriel | breathless | voice rising] My wrench hand shaking My goggles fogged with steam that smells of copper and old fire The gears down here aren't ours They predate every dream We ever dreamed [Chorus | all voices layering | orchestral strings | bodhran pulse | uilleann pipes] Something built this long before us Something vast and cold and wise Buried underneath our garden Underneath the city's underside This is not a power source This is not a gift This machine has kept a secret In every gear and rift What are we floating on? What are we floating on? What have we been dancing on All along? [Verse 2 — Narrator | moving deeper | steam percussion | gear clicks | dread peaks] The chamber opens like a heartbeat Walls of crystal root and bone At the center — something breathing Something old as the first stone It pulses gold and cold and patient Every revolution slow Like a clock that counts in centuries Not hours I would know [Petal Spirits — louder now | almost warning] Do not touch the heart of it Do not ask its name What steps inside the turning Must never walk again We planted every flower To keep the dreaming deep To keep the city a lullaby To keep the old dark asleep [Pre-Chorus — Auriel | voice cracking | raw wonder] I was born to fix the engines Born to read the gears and seams But no schematic in the city Could have mapped What this thing means [Chorus | bigger | all voices] Something built this long before us Something vast and cold and wise Buried underneath our garden Underneath the city's underside This is not a power source This is not a gift — It is not a prison — It is not a gift — It is the reason And it has been waiting Underneath our lives Underneath our love Underneath the sky Aetherbloom forgot to reach What are we floating on? What are we floating on? We were always Dancing On the edge Of everything [Bridge — all three voices layering | building dread and awe] Auriel: I can hear it thinking I can feel it know me Like it waited for a hand Like it waited for this morning Petal Spirits: She can hear it waking She can feel it rising Tell her what the garden Has carried since the first dawn sang Narrator: And in the deep below the deep Where flowers dare not grow The Celestial Engine The first gear turns without a hand And the pressure gauge climbs On its own [Final Chorus — all voices | orchestral | overwhelming] Something built this long before us Something vast and cold and wise Buried underneath our garden Underneath our blooming skies This is not a power source This is not a gift — It is not a prison — It is not a gift — It is both And it has been waiting Underneath our lives Underneath our love Underneath our copper-colored skies What are we floating on? What are we floating on? We were always Dancing On the edge Of everything [Outro — Petal Spirits alone | fading | silence] Sleep Sleep The old dark sleeps The flowers hold the dreaming In their roots So deep So deep So deep