[Intro: wind; footsteps] [Elara: distant] Someone's at the door. Don't let the candle— [Sound cuts] [Cole] One chair scraped. Two shadows crossed. One stayed longer Than the man we lost. [Cello rises] They left a strip of cloth. I couldn't read the sentence. [Heartbeat] Tied it round my head. [Silence] Grew into the conviction. [Verse 1: Cole; beat drops] Small shoes beneath a table. Boots arriving through the rain. Watched a man erase my future Without learning either name. Father left without his shadow. I grew into what remained. Shouldered all his unfinished— Till the cloth became a chain. Second hand around my forehead. Second hand against the clock. Second chance at being someone Who could make the first one stop. Strangers recognize the number. Every greeting checks the steel. Nobody asks how I'm living. They just ask me if it's real. [Rapid] Family business, inherited interest, Principal missing, repayments relentless. Blood in the ledger, a name in collections— Balance gets worse when it reaches descendants. [Beat cuts] They say I'm making a name. I keep hearing his. [Pre-Chorus] One more ridge. One less friend. Every road Says, “Not the end.” [Chorus: Elara; rising tension] Don't crown me— Call me home. Something follows When I climb alone. Higher, higher— The air runs thin. Who will I be When there's nothing to win? If I reach that sky, Will it let me rest? Or put another hungry heart Against my chest? [Bass release] Call me home. Call me home. Before the crown Is all I've known. [Instrumental: 8 bars] [Verse 2: Cole] Smoke beside me keeps on talking. Knows the jokes I never tell. Says, “You look like death warmed over.” Told him, “You should know me well.” Makes an empty stretch of roadside Sound like somebody came along. Sometimes I don't turn to answer. Sometimes turning proves him wrong. Met a woman with a kettle. She could see my shaking hands. Never asked about the stains. Moved the bowl within my span. I could read a shift in shoulders. See a threat before it formed. Couldn't read a simple kindness Without searching for the sword. Left before the water sang. Couldn't bear her asking— [Silence] “Stay.” [Flow tightens] Kept my guard, kept my distance, Kept the blade in mint condition. Spent my youth protecting metal. Called the rust in me conviction. Got a point. Made a point. Lost the point between the two. Steel reflects my face at midnight. Can't reflect what I've been through. [Chorus: Elara; heavier build] Don't crown me— Call me home. Something follows When I climb alone. Higher, higher— The air runs thin. Who will I be When there's nothing to win? If I reach that sky, Will it let me rest? Or put another hungry heart Against my chest? Call me home. Call me home. Before the crown Is all I've known. [Beat Switch: 16 bars] [Shamisen; dry drums; sliding bass] [Verse 3: Cole] Found the summit dressed in weather. No cathedral. No applause. Just a man inside a number With his fingers near the cause. Had rehearsed a thousand speeches. None survived the final stair. He looked older than my hatred. That was harder than his stare. First draw. Old wound. Steel dividing up the view. Every lesson in my muscles Made the choice before I knew. Boot slides. Cloth tears. Sky reflected on the ground. All those years of climbing Made a very small sound. [Music cuts] No reunion in the silence. No small hand inside my palm. Wind against the loosened fabric. Nothing in the weather calmed. Took the place. Took the title. Couldn't take the morning back. Then a footstep on the staircase. Then another after that. Young face. Old hunger. Something folded round his head. Saw myself beneath the table In the way his fingers clenched. [Pause] I finished what he started. Who finishes me? [Bridge: Elara] There are rooms you never entered. There are names you never knew. More beyond the mountain Than another one to prove. [Cole] Loosened cloth against my temples. Felt the wind where it had been. Held the number in my fingers. Couldn't make it weigh like him. [Build] Bloodline. Lifeline. Which one am I holding? Headline. Deadline. Who decides the closing? Every knot can look like purpose When you're scared to see it loose. [Silence] My hand opens. [Final Chorus: Elara; full release] Don't crown me— Call me home. I can hear you Through the wind and stone. Higher, higher— I climbed so far. Still a child beneath These borrowed scars. If I leave that sky, Let the mountain keep Every name I wore That never let me sleep. Call me home. Call me home. There's a life below I've never known. [Post-Chorus] Loose ends. Open hands. Let the wind Untie the man. Loose ends. Open door. I was someone Before the war. [Outro: Cole] Down below, A kettle starts to sing. This time, I wait. Same soul. Different frequency. [Instrumental Outro: 24 bars] [Rhodes, flute, cello; drums recede] [Bass resolves; natural decay] [End]
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