Mark The Day

keeper · Vethra
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Lyrics

Verse I

Mark the day and mark the night,

Cut the notch and keep it right.

Now has place and then has turn,

What is counted can be learned.

Chorus

Mark it once, mark it true,

Know what comes and when it’s due.

What is measured will behave,

Nothing slips that can be saved.

Verse II

Seed in ground and child in years,

Both need time before they’re here.

Wait is easier when it is known,

Waste is worse when time is shown.

Chorus

Mark it once, mark it true,

Know what comes and when it’s due.

What is measured will behave,

Nothing slips that can be saved.

Verse III

Lines on bone and lines on stone,

Show you what can still be spent.

Some grow slow and some grow fast,

Better used than left to last.

Quiet Verse

Some days come from further back,

Some are taken from the stack.

If the count comes up too fast,

Ask which future fed the past.

Final Chorus

Mark it once, mark it true,

Hold the time that carries you.

What is measured will behave,

Nothing slips that can be saved.

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The Story

Mark The Day is an original song from the TrueDark Rising world. It reflects the era of Vethra -- the Keeper of Time -- when the measurement of days, seasons, and years was first taught to the Kinsfolk.

The song belongs to a time when knowing changed everything. Seeds had seasons. Children had years. Waste grew worse when time was shown, and waiting grew easier when the end was known. Under Vethra's teaching, time was not merely observed but carved -- lines on bone and lines on stone, showing what could still be spent. The chorus rings with the promise of control: what is measured will behave.

Yet beneath its precision runs a quieter unease. Some days come from further back. Some are taken from the stack. If the count comes up too fast, the song asks which future fed the past. Vethra taught the Kinsfolk to measure time -- but measurement is not the same as ownership. Like many songs born of Keeper encounters, Mark The Day preserves both the gift and the cost. It remembers the order gained -- and the life that was counted away.

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