Aurora Lyra · The Black Bond · Track 01 of 12
The Tenth
“the tenth always dies”
An opening rite scored as a slow strings-and-choir crescendo, naming a three-hundred-year-old superstition before the dragon refuses to obey it.
Movement
Threshold
Length
3:45
Scene
Ch. 1–2
Listen
Stream “The Tenth” everywhere.
Part of the twelve-track Aurora Lyra album, The Black Bond — Companion Album.
Full lyrics
“The Tenth”
Intro
instrumental, ~30 sec on solo cello stating bond motif
Instrumental.
Verse 1
The bell came in threes at dawn
Bram tied my black wool cravat tight, did not look up
They said the tenth always dies — three centuries, same count
I was the tenth, and the count was thirty-one of us in line
Pre-Chorus
Nine paired with the wind
Nine to the lowland, nine to the rising sun
Nine paired with the wind
And then the black wing crested the eastern ridge
Chorus
This is the morning I do not die
This is the day-counter that does not stop
A black scale white at the throat —
I should not be standing in this light
Verse 2
I had told myself I was not afraid
And the not-afraid was the most frightening thing
The spiral lifting from my arm in ink
A sound under the floor I felt before I heard
Pre-Chorus
Nine paired with the wind
Nine to the lowland, nine to the rising sun
Nine paired with the wind
And he chose me, and the cohort did not breathe
Chorus
This is the morning I do not die
This is the day-counter that does not stop
A black scale white at the throat —
I should not be standing in this light
Bridge
The citadel held its bell
The Council held its sentence
The wind held its long low note —
Vyrak held his choice
I had asked for justice
I had not asked for this
Final Chorus
This is the morning I do not die
This is the day-counter that does not stop
The spiral lifting from my arm in ink —
A black scale white at the throat —
This is the morning I do not die
And the not-afraid was the most frightening thing
Lyrics © Aurora Lyra. All rights reserved.
The scene
Ch. 1–2 · The Pairing rite. Mira at the courtyard. The wing cresting the eastern ridge.
The line the track turns on
“the tenth always dies”
About the track
An opening rite scored as a slow strings-and-choir crescendo, naming a three-hundred-year-old superstition before the dragon refuses to obey it.
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 Threshold movement.
The world before the bond. Five tracks moving through the rite, the cold formality, the loft, the bond's first leak through the partition.
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