[INTRO]
[Low, rumbling bass. The sound of wind over ash. A distant alarm, long since abandoned. A voice, fractured, barely there:]
"They said it would save us. They said it would be light."
[Silence. Then—the sound of ignition.]
[VERSE 1]
[A single, clean piano note. A voice, almost peaceful, remembering.]
Before the fire, there was Coral
A song beneath the stone
They said it held the future
A future we could own
They built their towers to the sky
Their harvesters to the core
They said they knew what they were doing
They said they knew what it was for
We believed them
We always believe them
When they say they know the way
We believed them
Right up to the moment
When the sky turned grey
[CHORUS]
[The track ignites. Distorted, overwhelming. Voices layered—screaming, praying, silent.]
The Fires of Ibis took it all
The towers, the towers, the towers fall
The Coral burned from sea to sky
And Rubicon learned how to die
We lit the match, we struck the spark
We built the pyre, we made the dark
The Fires of Ibis, the Fires of Ibis
A lesson written in the scar
[VERSE 2]
[A single voice, older, worn. Carla's voice, perhaps. Someone who was there.]
I watched it from the edge
The sky turned white, then red
I heard them scream through the comms
And then I heard nothing instead
They said it was containment
A sacrifice for the whole
But you don't burn a planet
To save a soul
You burn it because you're afraid
You burn it because you can
You burn it because you looked at the fire
And thought you could hold it in your hand
[CHORUS]
[More distorted. More desperate. The fire spreads.]
The Fires of Ibis took it all
The towers, the towers, the towers fall
The Coral burned from sea to sky
And Rubicon learned how to die
We lit the match, we struck the spark
We built the pyre, we made the dark
The Fires of Ibis, the Fires of Ibis
A lesson written in the scar
[BRIDGE]
[Track pulls back. Just wind. A single voice, hollow.]
They say the Coral survived
That it grew back from the ash
That the fire only made it stronger
That the burn was just a flash
But I saw what it did
I saw what it made
I saw the bodies in the streets
The children in the shade
You don't come back from that
Not really, not whole
You just learn to carry the fire
In a different kind of coal
[FINAL VERSE]
[The track builds again, but not to explosion. To something heavier. Something that doesn't end.]
Fifty years later, they're back
Drilling the same holes
Reading the same old lies
From the same old scrolls
They say this time it's different
That they've learned from before
But I've seen the way they look at the Coral
The same hunger, the same core
You can't teach a wolf not to hunt
You can't teach a fire not to burn
You can only hope, when it comes again
That you've learned what you should have learned
[OUTRO]
"They said it would save us.”
“They lied.”
AsheTheHyena
