[Intro: Solo Violin] [Soft Male Vocal] The forest remembers. The cold sea forgets. The roots keep the promise. The town keeps the debt. [Violin Motif] [Verse 1] Woodshore was starving, its fishing nets bare, No grain in the furrows, no birds in the air. Aldren called softly to root and to stone, And a lady in crimson came walking alone. She filled every field and replenished the bay, But every bright blessing has blood for its pay. “At summer’s longest light, when the red moon is born, Bring nine to my shadow, and plenty returns.” [Pre-Chorus] They changed the old name. They buried the cost. They built up a harbour On all they had lost. But under the laughter, Behind every door, Nine silent heartbeats Are counted once more. [Chorus] The forest remembers, The cold sea forgets. Nine are the lives, And nine are the debts. Silver-haired daughter, With blade in your hand, Born of the briar, And bound to the land. When the last chain breaks And the red moon is born, Will you end the old bargain— Or become the Ninth Thorn? [Instrumental: Haunting Violin Refrain] [Verse 2] The painted carts gather, the bright garlands sway, While music and wine keep the questions away. A candle casts shadows no flame should create, A door in the darkness, a velvet-bound gate. The stone in the square has a prisoner’s eyes. He watches the nine and remembers their cries. And Aevryn walks onward, her thorn-arm concealed, With a scar like a promise that never has healed. [Pre-Chorus] Her silver braid glimmers. Her wounded eye burns. Beyond the dark forest, The Queen waits her turn. They call her the keeper, The dagger, the key. But no one has asked her What she wishes to be. [Chorus] The forest remembers, The cold sea forgets. Nine are the lives, And nine are the debts. Silver-haired daughter, With blade in your hand, Born of the briar, And bound to the land. When the last chain breaks And the red moon is born, Will you end the old bargain— Or become the Ninth Thorn? [Violin Solo: Tender, Beautiful, Unsettling] [Verse 3] By daylight she hides what is rooted beneath, The briars in flesh and the thorns in her teeth. The town calls her daughter, protected and fair, Then leaves her alone when the nine gather there. The first blade awakens the roots in the ground. The second draws something through stone without sound. With each falling heartbeat, her right eye grows bright, And the Queen takes one step from her kingdom of night. [Bridge: Building Intensity] O Queen of Air and Darkness, Behold what you made: A town built on hunger, A child made a blade. You taught them that silence Could purchase the spring. You taught roots to listen And dead bells to ring. But oaths have a weakness, And thorns can be torn. A hand may refuse What its bloodline has sworn. The blade you have chosen, The soul you control, May yet cut the briar Away from her soul. [Orchestral Rise] [Final Chorus] The forest remembers, Though cold waters rise. The sea cannot drown What is seen by her eyes. Silver-haired daughter, The choice is your own. No crown in the forest Can turn you to stone. When the last chain breaks And the red moon is born, Will you end the old bargain— Or become the Ninth Thorn? [Choir] The Ninth Thorn... The Ninth Thorn... [Choir] The Ninth Thorn... The Ninth Thorn... [Final Violin Solo] [Outro: Quiet Male Vocal] Three for the flower. Three for the gloom. Three for the promise That ripens to doom. Eight notes fall silent. One waits in the storm. The bow leaves the string... And the ninth note Never comes.
