[Voice 1: Aria, female, ethereal, breathy soprano]
[Voice 2: Rael, male, deep baritone, warm]
[Intro]
[PROD: Tanpura drone, cello barely above silence, tabla dragging fractionally behind tempo. 16 bars. Pure ancient waiting.]
[Verse][Aria]
Before the first word we had already loved
In fire and clay, in river and stone
I’ve felt your hands in languages long forgotten
I’ve left your arms and still carried you home
[Verse][Rael]
We’ve been strangers who knew each other’s smell
Been enemies lit from the same candle flame
Every lifetime a room I was learning to leave
And every door led me back to your name
[Pre-Chorus][Aria]
But this time the lamp is in the window
This time the Master set the light
([Rael] This time we’re not coming back from each other)
This time we’re going all the way through
[Chorus][Aria]
Take my hand beloved
We’ve done this before
But never like this
The current knew the shore we couldn’t see
The body remembers
What the mind can’t explain
We won’t come back again
([Rael] We won’t come back again)
[Verse][Aria]
[PROD: arrangement drops to near-silence. Honor what she’s saying.]
Don’t call this longing low
Don’t call this hunger shame
The body knows what the mind is still arguing
Desire is the river, not the chain
[Verse][Rael]
[PROD: just low cello and tabla. Almost nothing.]
And the heart — oh the heart takes longer
Opens across silence and seasons and fights
Every wound I held up like a torch
I was burning you with my own unmet light
[Pre-Chorus]
[Aria] You were my mirror
[Rael] You were mine
[Aria] I didn’t always like what I saw
[Rael] Which means you were doing exactly
[Aria] Exactly what you came here for
[Chorus][Aria]
Take my hand beloved
We’ve done this before
But never like this
The current knew the shore we couldn’t see
The body remembers
What the mind can’t explain
We won’t come back again
([Rael] We won’t come back again)
[Bridge]
[PROD: close-mic, almost no reverb. Single sparse beat under spoken word.]
[Rael] I looked for you
[Aria] And found I couldn’t find
[Rael] Where you ended
[Aria] Where I began
[Aria] Not because we were lost —
[PROD: beat drops entirely. Singing bowl. Room air only.]
[Rael] Because the one who was looking had quietly dissolved
[Outro][Aria]
[PROD: no drums, no cello. Tanpura drone, singing bowl, voices only. Do not cut. Dissolve into tanpura.]
Take my hand beloved
Known to the bone but strange as the first time
The Master is smiling
He knew all along
([Rael] He knew all along)
Two flames becoming
What they always were
One love
One light
One song