100 Wagons

keeper · Selcar
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Lyrics

Verse I

Morning cloth and painted wheels,

Secrets only time reveals.

Smiles were easy, hands were clean,

Nothing said of what it means.

Refrain

Stroked our pride,

Stoked our greed,

Selcar has just what you need,

Selcar has just what you need.

Chorus

Stay a while, the road can wait,

Nothing here is sealed by fate.

What you want is close at hand,

Just wait quietly where you stand.

Verse II

Gifts laid out in careful rows,

Not for now, but when you’re close.

Take one thing, leave one behind,

All in good and patient time.

Refrain

Leave all it is that you owe,

Leave your treasures as you go,

Nothing heavy, nothing fast,

What you need is meant to last.

Chorus

Stay a while, don’t turn away,

There’s no harm in one more day.

What you carry slows your feet,

Set it down and feel the ease.

Verse III

Canvas lifts and closes slow,

One more thing we ought to know.

Nothing gone and nothing lost,

Just another counted cost.

Count Verse

A hundred days have come and passed,

A hundred nights have gone so fast.

Morning came the same each time,

Soft and thin as worn-out twine.

Quiet Verse

No one hurried. No one asked.

Nothing felt too much or fast.

We were still when we should go—

That’s the part we didn’t know.

Nothing taken from our hands,

Only time we didn’t plan.

Days were spent before we knew

They were what was passing through.

Final Chorus

Stay a while, the road can wait,

Walking’s work and rest feels safe.

What was meant to carry on

Learned to wait—

And waited long.

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The Story

A Hundred Days Gone Soft is an original song from the TrueDark Rising world. It reflects the era of Selcar -- the Keeper of Trade -- when markets, coinage, valuation, and the art of desire were first introduced to the Kinsfolk.

The song belongs to a time when rest itself became the trap. Selcar did not demand blood or worship. He offered painted wheels, morning cloth, and gifts laid out in careful rows. Stay a while, the road can wait. Nothing here is sealed by fate. The refrain strokes pride and stokes greed with a smile -- Selcar has just what you need.

Yet the count verse reveals the quiet devastation. A hundred days have come and passed, soft and thin as worn-out twine. No one hurried. No one asked. The Kinsfolk were still when they should have been moving -- and that is the part they did not know. Unlike the other Keepers, Selcar took nothing from their hands. He only took time they did not plan to spend. Like many songs born of Keeper encounters, A Hundred Days Gone Soft preserves both the gift and the cost. It remembers the ease gained -- and the days that slipped away.

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