[Verse I]

Before the charts were carved in silver

Before the names of worlds were sealed

Before the routes were taught to children

Before the oldest vows could yield

There came a turn no mind had measured

There came a sky no law could bind

And all who lived beneath its breathing

Felt the hand of ending find

[Verse II]

Thе moons moved wrong

The bright went bittеr

The tides climbed up the bones of stone

Night burned green in all the heavens

Every people dreamed the same unknown

In the chambers, in the engines

In the roots and under glass

Every instrument gave warning:

This great shadow would not pass

[Pre-Chorus]

Not by war

Not by harvest

Not by plague or failing throne—

But by silence in the pattern

Would the living be undone

[Chorus]

So align

Align

Align—

Lift the mirrors. Turn the rings

Bind the orbit. Brace the towers

Wake the buried signal strings

Align

Align—

Let no hand fall out of time

For the dark between the planets

Hungry leaned against the line

[Verse III]

Then the mountain bells were broken

Then the deep observatories cried

Then the keepers climbed the frozen ladders

And lit the eyes on every side

In the deserts, plates were kindled

In the oceans, engines turned

Under cities, ancient chambers

Opened where the blue fire burned

[Verse IV]

Not one tongue could hold the measure

Not one throne could claim the sky

So the blind raised up the copper

And the dying tuned reply

Children turned the lesser mirrors

Pilots sang through blood and frost

Those too old to stand kept counting

For the ones the night had cost

[Chorus]

So align

Align

Align—

Lift the mirrors. Turn the rings

Bind the orbit. Brace the towers

Wake the buried signal strings

Align

Align—

Let no hand fall out of time

For the dark between the planets

Hungry leaned against the line

[Verse V]

Seven stations missed the rhythm

Three were taken out of phase

One whole valley watched its daylight

Fold itself in soundless waves

On the ninth and final measure

Two of the watcher moons went blind

And still the choirs below kept singing

Though the glass cut through their spine

[Bridge]

There were no heroes in that turning

Only hands that did not flee

Only bodies set to function

In a vast necessity

No one voice became the center

No one name survived the strain

When the heavens ask for order

They do not ask for it again

[Verse VI]

Then it came—

The perfect meeting

The wound and answer, lock and key

When all the lights in all the distances

Stood in one geometry

Every mirror caught its brother

Every tower found its tone

Every orbit held one breathing

Every world was not alone

[Pre-Chorus]

And the great dark

Pressed and waiting

Found no hunger in the seam

For the living, joined in measure

Had become a single beam

[Final Chorus]

So align

Align—

Though the hands are ash by dawn

Though the eyes go white with distance

Though the ones you love are gone

Align

Align—

Hold the pattern. Hold the cry

For the first and fiercest mercy

Was that none were left to die alone

[Outro]

And after, when the skies grew quiet

And after, when the tides withdrew

The towers cracked. The mirrors darkened

The bells forgot the notes they knew

But still in ruins, still in winter

Still when distant instruments ring

The old ones bow their heads and whisper:

We remained because all things sang