[Orchestra surges – strings driving, snare beneath]
[Full Company – urgent, unified]
Do you hold… or do you strike?
Do you stand… or risk alike?
Every choice is carved in flame—
Win the war, or lose the same!
[Captain Fitzgerald – strong, cutting through]
You spend men’s lives like they are coin,
A reckless hand I will not join!
There’s order in the way we fight—
We do not charge into the night!
We plan, we build, we hold, we wait—
We choose the hour, we choose our fate!
A war is more than just the blow—
It’s knowing when not to go!
[Mark Stormcastle – immediate overlap]
And while you wait, the fire spreads!
Your caution fills the ground with dead!
You build your plans on borrowed time—
While dragons learn our every line!
We waited once—you saw the cost!
Three now rise from chances lost!
You call it wisdom—I call delay—
And delay will end us all one day!
[Company split]
[Fitzgerald Side:] Hold the line! Hold it fast!
[Mark Side:] Strike them now! Make it last!
[Full:]
Blood or breath—what is the price?
Victory demands its sacrifice!
[Fitzgerald – sharper, almost desperate]
What victory if none remain?
If all we win is ash and pain?
A field of dead is not success—
It’s failure dressed in righteousness!
[Mark – pushing forward, intensity rising]
And what is left if we delay?
A slower death another way!
They watch us, learn us, bend and grow—
Give them time and they will know!
I will not stand, I will not yield—
While hesitation costs the field!
[Company – louder, layered counterpoint]
[Fitzgerald Side:]
Hold! Hold! Think before you fall!
Not every fire must take us all!
[Mark Side:]
Strike! Strike! End it in flame!
Waiting only feeds their reign!
[Full (crashing together):]
Who is right and who will pay?
We decide their fate today!
[Fitzgerald – breaking through chaos]
Don’t you see—Percy!
[Music halts—single sustained note]
[Mark – stunned]
…Percy?
[Fitzgerald – raw, unraveling]
My son!
He stood where you stand now!
Spoke as you speak—unbending, proud!
He cried, “No time! We must advance!”
He called your fury circumstance!
He flew too fast—he burned too bright—
And vanished from my world that night!
[Soft Company – echoing, ghostlike]
Gone too fast… gone in flame…
Different voice… the very same…
[Mark – shaken, quieter but resisting]
I did not know… I could not see…
But if I stop—what then will be?
If I hold back, if I delay—
How many more will burn that way?
[Fitzgerald – stepping toward him]
And if you don’t—if you pursue—
How many sons will die like you?
[Final Ensemble – massive, interwoven lines]
[Mark (over):]
Strike now! End it while we can!
[Fitzgerald (over):]
Hold fast! Save what’s left of man!
[Company splits:]
Fire calls and patience pleads—
War is fed by desperate needs!
[Mark:] We don’t have time!
[Fitzgerald:] We don’t have sons!
[Full Company (towering, tragic):]
Every path the same road runs—
Toward the cost no one outruns!
[Final note – unified, solemn]
Caution…
Doesn’t kill…
Dragons…
…but neither does the grave.
ElCeviche
