(Richard's Voice) [Prologue] They said I was chosen. They never asked if I remembered why. I believed I was one man, Moving forward. But memory does not move. It surrounds. And now— I am surrounded by what I once called time. [Verse I] I saw a queen rise from paint and silence. Carole. She did not crave the throne. She painted it, Then stepped inside her own design. But power, once held, Is heavier than belief. She ruled a city of mirrors, Where even truth wore crowns. And I stood at the edge, A witness. Neither savior nor enemy. [Chorus I] To witness is not to be innocent To witness is not to be innocent [Verse II] And Selene— She was not born. She sang herself into being. Not with wires, nor archives, But with a dream— A world made of resonance, Where harmony resolved the wound. We met as rivals, In the chamber of creation. We became lovers. Two dreamers Shaping time with breath and pulse. But dreams are fragile When power knocks. We lost each other— Not by betrayal, But by fracture. Still— Love, once returned, Is not the same shape it left in. [Bridge] What is power? A throne? A voice? The ability to rewrite a mind? I watched Augustus wear another man’s name. I watched him mold Carole’s heart Like it was part of his strategy. She bore him a child— Will, whose eyes ask questions No ruler can answer. Was it love, or manipulation? And does the difference matter If the world bends the same way after? [Chorus II] We are all shaped. By who we follow. By what we forgive. By what we remember too late. [Verse III] The planet called me back. I once thought I came from a city. But I came from roots. From those who spoke with the mind, Who walked through space Like breath through lungs. But we lost that gift. The plant took it. Addiction replaced wisdom. Dependence masked the silence. Even now— I wonder if the thought I’m thinking is mine, Or something whispered long ago Through unmarked genes. [New Bridge] And then— A sound I did not invent. My own voice. Singing something I never wrote. In the ruins of the Chamber of Lost Songs, I remembered. Not a scene. Not a person. But the whole thing. All timelines at once. Selene’s note. Carole’s defiance. Emma’s garden. Jo’s warning. The child… The child holding a thread. [Verse IV] And I trembled. Because for the first time— I saw the edge of all things. The collapse. The cost. And in the trembling… Joy. Infinite. Wordless. Undeserved. A love without center. A peace so vast it nearly destroyed me. And in that light— I knew. [Verse V] If I return— I return to that child. To the garden. To the ones who still believe Even when they don’t remember why. If I stay— I stay with Selene. And we build a world of sound As the others vanish beneath collapse. [Final Reflection] I am a thread That once was cut. Now pulled again through shadow. I remember not as a man, But as one who was nearly lost, And found, By a moment of truth. To wake Is not to rise. It is to choose. [Final Line] And today… I choose to walk toward the child.
