Aurora Lyra · The Black Bond · Track 11 of 12
I Had Been a Brick
“I had not been a witness. I had been a brick.”
Mira's reckoning. Two mothers, one fire, a country built from a manufactured story. The track scored to a witness realizing she was a tool.
Movement
Cost
Length
4:55
Scene
Ch. 35
Listen
Stream “I Had Been a Brick” everywhere.
Part of the twelve-track Aurora Lyra album, The Black Bond — Companion Album.
Full lyrics
“I Had Been a Brick”
Spoiler — Chapter 35. The reckoning. Names the antagonist. Read the book first. Click to reveal lyrics.
Intro
instrumental, ~20s on solo piano in D minor
Instrumental.
Verse 1
sparse, solo piano + voice
I had not been a witness
I had not been a girl who saw
I had been a brick
I had been a thing they put in a wall
Verse 2
strings begin to enter
The casualty roster was thirty-eight names
And Brennfall was where my mother had died
Roesa's son had been on the campaign
And the campaign had been the one her dispatch would have stopped
Pre-Chorus
strings rise
She brought me sweet pickled fruits in her House jar
She sat with me warm in the Council Chamber
She built me out of my mother's death
To bury her own son's
Chorus
full chorus + strings + processed pulse beneath
Two mothers, two countries, two deaths
And a country built out of one death I could not bury
The tenth always dies — and I did not
And the not-dying is the brick they used
Verse 3
Mira alone again, descending
She had a silver signet-ring
Small enough to turn on a thumb
And she touched it once when she was caught
And the room saw her hand
Pre-Chorus
She brought me sweet pickled fruits in her House jar
She sat with me warm in the Council Chamber
She built me out of my mother's death
To bury her own son's
Chorus
Two mothers, two countries, two deaths
And a country built out of one death I could not bury
The tenth always dies — and I did not
And the not-dying is the brick they used
Bridge
orchestral rise; brass enters at line 3
I had drawn the wing on the wall in the vault
He had drawn the wing on the wall in the vault
And he named his brother through his teeth
And she had drawn me the same way
She had drawn me the same way
Final Chorus
full rupture: brass + choir + processed pulse + tempo ~110, last 90 sec
Two mothers, two countries, two deaths
And a country built out of one death I could not bury
The tenth always dies — and I did not
And the not-dying is the brick they used
The tenth always dies — and I did not
And the not-dying is the brick they used
I had not been a witness
I had been a brick
Lyrics © Aurora Lyra. All rights reserved.
The scene
Ch. 35 · Mira's first cry. The casualty roster. Two mothers. A country built out of one death.
The line the track turns on
“I had not been a witness. I had been a brick.”
About the track
Mira's reckoning. Two mothers, one fire, a country built from a manufactured story. The track scored to a witness realizing she was a tool.
The Black Bond is the first novel of The Skarn Reach, an Aurora Lyra romantasy. Every Aurora Lyra novel ships with a companion album — twelve original songs scored to the book’s emotional spine. This track is one of three in the Cost movement.
The aftermath. The watercooler line. The catharsis. The HEA, with the wing-tear in it.
All twelve tracks
Hear the full arc.
Twelve songs in three movements. Threshold. Storm. Cost. The album scored to the spine of The Black Bond.
See the full track list →The novel this scores
The Black Bond
She put him in a cage. Three years later, his dragon chose her.
Read the novel