Ascend - Act II — Scene Five - Everything I Built

[The Story — New Meridian, 2091. Cael Morrow rises from the Lower Grid to lead a revolution called The Ascending, seizes the Governing Council, and slowly becomes the very thing he overthrew. His oldest friend Lyra watches the drift. His enforcer Sable runs further than he authorized. And the people eventually sing his own words back at him as an indictment.] [Cael — Baritone Solo, Breakdown Aria] [Intro] [Instrumental – bare piano only, nothing else] [Verse 1] [Male Vocal – raw, completely unguarded] I had a speech once — Standing on a fountain that didn't work In a square that smelled like rain and frustration And the city stretched above me like a dare And I thought: if I could just get high enough If I could just get loud enough If I could make them feel what I was feeling — We could change everything [Chorus] [Male Vocal – voice breaking] Everything I built — where is it? Where's the version I described? Where's the water in Grid Seven? Where's the world I advertised? [Verse 2] [Male Vocal] Is it buried in the paperwork? Is it hiding in the deals? Is it waiting in a better version of me That I traded for the feeling of the wheel? Everything I built had cracks in it Everything I built had walls And I kept painting them and painting them Convinced that no one saw at all But they saw — Lyra saw And I told her she was wrong [Bridge] [Male Vocal] I wanted to be the exception I wanted to be the proof That a person could hold power And still remember the truth [Outro] [Spoken – eyes closed] I was the truth — for a minute. I was the truth. [Instrumental – single piano note, then silence]