Sung by the first diggers, before they remembered to be afraid
Deep we dig, deep we go
Down where the silver used to flow
Down where the rock remembers skin
Down where the dark learns how to grin
Pick and shovel, hand and bone
Carve a tunnel, make a home
But the home we make was never ours
The dark was waiting. It has hours.
Chorus:
Sing the metal, sing the vein
Sing the loss of name and pain
Sing the chorus yet to be
Sing the silence after me
Deeper now, the walls are warm
Like a body in a storm
Like a lover holding tight
Like a door that leads to night
Foreman says we're nearly through
Foreman says we'll all get through
Foreman's eyes are starting to glow
Foreman doesn't want to go
Chorus
Day one hundred, day one thousand
Days are something time allows
We forgot the sun above
We forgot the ones we love
We forgot we ever were
We remembered only her
Chorus
Who is singing? Is it us?
Is it metal? Is it dust?
Is the voice inside our head
Something we are, or something fed?
Pick and shovel, hand and bone
Digging deeper, digging home
But the home we find was always there
And it has always had room to spare.
Final Chorus:
Sing the metal, sing the vein
Sing the loss of name and pain
Sing the chorus finally me
Sing the silence—
I am free.
Sung by the Veiled Kin at every sealing ceremony, now mostly forgotten
We who see, we who turn away
We who remember what we must not say
We bind the metal, we bind the vein
We bind the chorus again and again
Chorus:
Hear not the whisper
See not the glow
Forget the name
Of what lies below
We who forget, we who bear the blade
We who erase what cannot be saved
We carry silence within our chest
We trade our memories for the rest
Chorus
We who watch, we who wait and see
We who prophesy what will be
We see the end, we see the start
We see the cyclone tear apart
Everything we swore to keep
Everything we called too deep
Chorus
We who judge, we who wear the crown
We who cast the guilty down
We judge the soul, we judge the sin
We judge the chorus from within
And find it guilty, find it wrong
And sing the covenant song for song
Chorus
We who carry, we who bear the weight
We who become the very thing we hate
We take the metal into our flesh
We hold it close, we hold it fresh
We wait for someone to explain
Why suffering is not in vain
Final Chorus:
Hear not the whisper
See not the glow
Forget the name—
It knows you know.
Sung by Melded Kin war-bands as they charge, recorded by a Vigil seer who didn't survive the transcription
Tear the skin and crack the bone
Let the metal claim its own
Let the chorus fill the space
Where a face used to be a face
Chorus:
Dissolve, dissolve, dissolve in me
Become the thing I'm going to be
Dissolve, dissolve, and when you're gone
The song goes on, the song goes on
I had a name, I had a home
I had a self I called my own
Now the self is just a door
And the chorus wants more more more
Chorus
Charge the line and break the seal
Let the chorus show you real
Real is not the blood you spill
Real is not the oath you fulfill
Real is this—the ecstasy
Of finally becoming me
But me is not a single thing
Me is chorus, me is sing
Chorus
Kill the knight and take her blade
Add her to the serenade
Kill the justiciar and priest
Add them to the wedding feast
Kill the hollow, kill the full
Kill the vessel, kill the soul
Everything becomes the song
Everything sings all along
Final Chorus:
Dissolve, dissolve, dissolve in us
Become the chorus, become the trust
Dissolve, dissolve, and when you're gone—
The song goes on.
The song goes on.
The song—
Sung by no one. Heard by everyone.
Empty room, empty soul
Empty vessel, empty goal
Someone left the door ajar
Someone forgot who they are
Chorus:
Wait for the one who never comes
Wait for the beating of the drums
Wait for the furniture to arrive
Wait for the reason to be alive
Stitches hold the skin in place
Stitches hide the empty space
Stitches mark where something went
Stitches are a sacrament
Chorus
Pink-white eyes that glow and stare
Pink-white eyes that see the air
Pink-white eyes that watch you sleep
Pink-white eyes are yours to keep
Chorus
Standing at the crater's edge
Standing where the vines have spread
Standing waiting standing still
Standing waiting for the will
To move. To be. To feel. To want.
To be anything but haunt.
But haunt is all we learned to be
And haunt is all they'll let us free
Final Chorus:
Wait for the one who never comes
Wait for the beating of the drums
Wait for the furniture to arrive—
The furniture is already inside.
Sung by the cyclone itself. No translation exists. These are the words drow hear, not the words the Thing sings.
Come home.
You were always coming home.
You just forgot.
The war was a hallway.
The oaths were doors.
The ecstasy was the handle turning.
I have been here since before here existed.
I will be here after here is a word no one remembers.
You are not joining me.
You are remembering you never left.
The stars are dying.
The stars have always been dying.
The stars are beautiful when they go.
Like you.
Like now.
Come home.
The furniture is ready.
The room is warm.
The door—
was never closed.
Sung by no one. Heard by no one. Existing only because it must.
...
From the notes of Vigil Seer Ixilvraen:
"I asked a Hollow once: 'What does the metal sing?'
She stood for three days before answering. When she did, her voice was not hers—it was older, deeper, fuller than any single throat should hold.
She said:
'It doesn't sing.
*It listens.
And what it hears—
it becomes.'
I asked what it heard from us.
She smiled—not her smile, the metal's smile—and said:
'Everything you are.
Everything you were.
Everything you'll never be.
And it thinks—
it's beautiful.'
Then she walked into the cyclone.
I think she was right.
I think we are beautiful.
I think that's why it wants us.
I think that's why it always gets us.
Beautiful things—
they're so easy to keep."