[Overture]
(Instrumental: low brass, single bell toll, strings swell into a minor-major turn)
[Verse 1]
At the edge of Sundermere stands the last lighthouse, bright (12)
A keeper called Mira keeps its lantern through the night (12)
Smoke from broken banners stains the winter sky with gray (12)
I vow to hold the flame while the world begins to sway (12)
[Pre-Chorus]
Hear the single bell — it trembles like a memory (11)
Shadows count the names beneath the fallen crown at sea (11)
I will not leave my post when the tide comes home for grief (11)
My hand closes on the rope and I become belief (11)
[Chorus]
Rise — we pull the dark apart (7)
Step by step, we steal the stars (7)
This is the hour we are made (7)
[Verse 2]
Beneath the waves the fallen crown keeps a ledger of names (12)
Sea-salt and memory clog the harbor mouths and frames (11)
My hands climb the spiral until the glass gives to dawn (11)
I light the path they feared to take; I trade my voice, not brawn (12)
[Pre-Chorus - Variation]
Hear the single bell — it answers me in cracked refrain (12)
The broken banners teach me how to stand inside the rain (12)
I set the iron gird and feed the lantern with my song (11)
If silence is the price, I will be brave and pay it strong (11)
[Chorus]
Rise — we pull the dark apart (7)
Step by step, we steal the stars (7)
This is the hour we are made (7)
[Bridge]
The bell will toll three times and take the sound from where I stand (14)
They tell me if I give my voice I keep a thousand hands (13)
A cost carved in the wood: my throat will close like winter glass (13)
The lighthouse must be lit — or all our little beacons pass (13)
So I lay my song into the forge, I lift the iron high (13)
I cast my voice into the flame and watch the dark deny (11)
Then silence breaks in courage: I grin through the small ache (12)
The loss is weight and armor now; we do not break — we wake (10)
[Chorus - Final]
Rise — we pull the dark apart (7)
Step by step, we steal the stars (7)
This is the hour we are made (7)
[Outro]
(Choir hums; single bell rings, now bright; strings lift in a sudden key-lift)
Sundermere remembers the keeper who gave dawn its name (13)
A lamp that burns with borrowed song — a light that keeps the flame (12)
[Motifs to repeat]
- Single bell: toll at intro, pre-chorus, bridge, and final outro
- Broken banners & sea-salt: visual leitmotifs in verses
- Forge/fire/lantern: sound and lyrical motif for sacrifice and remaking
[Production notes]
- Lead vocal: female, intimate yet operatic in power for climactic lines
- Arrangement: start sparse (solo piano, low strings, single bell), build with full orchestra by pre-chorus
- Chorus: full choir hits on each line, brass fanfare on chord changes, timpani punctuations
- Bridge: stripped voice with a suspended string cluster, then a sudden brass and choir surge into the final chorus
- Final chorus: raise key by a whole step for theatrical lift; add an ascending choir counterline and a harp gliss under the last bell
- Suggested tempo: 72–78 BPM; dramatic rubato in v
