What We Bound

wandering
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Lyrics

Verse 1

We spoke the work before it came,

Set terms while daylight still was fair.

A hand was shaken, marks the same,

So none could later say “I wasn’t there.”

Verse 2

We learned which words were meant to stay,

Which promises could cross the night.

A thing once said could hold its weight

When words are kept in fire’s light.

Chorus

We bound the work to days ahead,

Agreed, recorded, sealed, and said.

No watch required, none to stay,

The mark will hold. The flame will weigh.

Verse 3

A knot was tied, a notch was scored,

A witness stood and heard it done.

The road could turn, the hands ignore,

The promise worked when watch was gone.

Verse 4

What could be spoken could be owed,

What could be named could ask its due.

The load moved on another road,

Still pulling us by what we knew.

Chorus

We bound the work to days ahead,

Agreed, recorded, sealed, and said.

No watch required, none to stay,

The mark will hold. The flame will weigh.

Bridge

The promise stayed.

The mark stayed true.

The work went on.

Without our view.

Final Chorus

We bound the work to days ahead,

Agreed, recorded, sealed, and said.

No watch required, none to stay,

The mark will hold. The flame will weigh.

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The Story

What We Bound is an original song from the TrueDark Rising world. It reflects the time after leaving Baelor -- when the Kinsfolk carried the power of binding words forward and began learning what promises could do when no one was watching.

The song belongs to the road between Keepers, when the people tested what they had learned. They spoke work into being, shook hands by firelight, scored notches and tied knots. A thing once said could hold its weight. A promise worked even when the watch was gone. The mark held. The flame weighed.

Yet the later verses reveal the cost of binding without caution. What could be spoken could be owed. What could be named could ask its due. The load moved on another road, still pulling them by what they knew. Baelor taught them that words have power -- but power does not ask permission before it collects.

Like all songs of this world, it serves as memory. It is meant to be sung at agreements and partings, and understood fully only in hindsight.