ALIÉNOR [Intro — distant Celtic female choir] É-o… é-o… Aaah… hey-ya… É-o… é-o… They say that in the age of old woods, there lived a fairy named Aliénor. She carried beneath her silver wings a light brighter than gold. She laughed beside the rivers, she danced whenever the wild wind rose, until one night, beyond the standing stones, she met a heart where no light goes. A Blackheart. [Low choir] É-o… é-o… No light goes… She gave him a little flame. He swallowed it. She gave him more. He wanted more. [Chorus — wide female choir, bodhrán rising] É-o, Aliénor, keep your fire, keep your flame. Hey-ya, hey-ya… É-o, Aliénor, not every shadow wants the day. Aaah… é-o… Hold your light, Aliénor, hold it close when darkness calls. Some hearts do not fear the night. Some hearts feed on light at all. [Verse 2] But Aliénor kept trying, as fairies often do. She believed that if she shone enough, the dark would one day let her through. Then came the night the Blackheart struck, harder than ever before. And Aliénor understood at last: he would come back while her wings still burned. [Choir — whispered] Burn… burn… É-o… So she took her wings between her hands. And tore them from her back. [Silence] The forest went still. The Blackheart saw no light. And left her there. [Instrumental — low whistle and fiddle] Hey-ya… hey-ya… É-o… é-o… [Verse 3] Aliénor fell to the earth. Fairies know the wind. They know the branches. They know the sky. But fairies do not know how to walk alone. Still, she walked. Through roots, through rain, through mud and stone. Until her ankle gave way beneath an ancient oak. She did not cry. She did not call. She waited. [Verse 4] That is where the knight found her. They called him Lionheart. He offered her his hand. She turned away. So he stayed. No questions. No promises. And when he looked at Aliénor, he saw what she could not. Her wings were gone. Her light was not. [Choir rising] É-o… The light remains… É-o… [Chorus] É-o, Aliénor, your wings were never all your light. Hey-ya, hey-ya… É-o, Aliénor, some fires live beneath the night. Aaah… é-o… Walk now, Aliénor, walk until the morning comes. The sky has not forgotten you. The wind still knows your name. [Verse 5] The knight knew the Blackhearts too. They had left old scars beneath his armor and a darkness that returned at night. Aliénor tried to heal him. But some wounds do not disappear. Some shadows stay. So she held out her hand. “When your light grows weak, I will lend you some of mine.” [Whispered choir] Not all… Never all… And so they walked. He with his darkness. She without her wings. [Build — fiddle faster, bodhrán stronger] Hey-ya! Hey-ya! É-o! É-o! Then one morning something broke through the skin along Aliénor’s back. One feather. Then another. Then another. [Final Chorus — full choir] É-O, ALIÉNOR, YOUR WINGS ARE RISING ONCE AGAIN. Hey-ya, hey-ya! É-O, ALIÉNOR, STRONGER THAN THEY WERE BACK THEN. Aaah… é-o… Keep your fire, Aliénor. Keep enough to find your way. You may light the road for others without burning yourself away. [Outro — slower, ancient choir] And the knight? His scars remained. The darkness remained. But one night he looked at Aliénor and said: “I do not feel it like before.” And she understood. She had not destroyed his darkness. She had only stayed beside him long enough for him to remember his own light. É-o… é-o… And in the old woods, when the moon is low, they say a fairy still flies beside a knight with a lion’s heart. He never asks her to stay. Hey-ya… And she never needs to run away. É-o… Aaah… é-o…
