Silent Ledger

[Intro] (Whispered vocals over a single, sustained cello note and distant, echoing chimes) [Verse 1] Dust motes dance in shafts of borrowed light In vaults where mercy's weighed by gilded might My voice, a moth-wing brush on parchment thin Against the roar where true accounts begin They speak of bonds, of forfeits coldly due While justice sleeps, a dream they never knew The scales they hold are tipped with leaden gold While stories of the desperate go untold A merchant's daughter, bound by silent law Learned the price of silence, felt the flaw [Chorus] (Orchestra swells - strings, brass, timpani; raw, hushed vocal pushes against it) Oh, the Silent Ledger, pages deep and wide Where every cry for bread is brushed aside They build their towers on a hush profound To keep the suffering from making sound Lest change should echo, shaking stone and steel Reveal the wounds their fortunes try to seal This quiet is the weapon, sharp and cold The story of the poor, bought and sold [Verse 2] I wore the scholar's cloak, the advocate's disguise Saw truth reflected in the debtor's eyes Not flesh for bond, but spirit held in thrall To masters deafened by their own stone wall Their wealth, a fortress built on whispered dread Where hope's a currency too quickly shed The clever wordplay twists like ivy vine Around the pillars of their grand design To name the silence, give the hush a tongue Before the final, f***l gavel's swung [Chorus] (Orchestra swells - strings, brass, timpani; raw, hushed vocal pushes against it) Oh, the Silent Ledger, pages deep and wide Where every cry for bread is brushed aside They build their towers on a hush profound To keep the suffering from making sound Lest change should echo, shaking stone and steel Reveal the wounds their fortunes try to seal This quiet is the weapon, sharp and cold The story of the poor, bought and sold [Bridge] (Sparse, intimate: acoustic guitar plucking, soulful vocal sample loop, voice closer, trembling) One coin for mercy? One coin for a life? Paid in the shadow, cutting like a k***e The gavel falls, but listen... underneath A different rhythm, pulsing like a grief A myth rewrites itself on trembling air Portia unmasked, beyond a lawyer's chair Not just for one, but for the countless throng Whose silenced chorus makes the wealthy strong The debt they owe can never be repaid In gold alone; a deeper cost was laid [Chorus] (Fullest orchestration yet, powerful but intimate vocal delivery, blending triumph and struggle) Oh, the Silent Ledger, pages deep and wide! Where every cry for bread is brushed aside! They build their towers on a hush profound! To keep the suffering from making sound! Lest change should echo, shaking stone and steel! Reveal the wounds their fortunes try to seal! This quiet is the weapon, sharp and cold! The story of the poor, bought and sold! [Outro] (Orchestra fades to strings and harp, soul sample lingers, voice returns to a whisper, echoing) The hush profound... begins to crack... A single word... calls the silence back... The ledger... trembles... in the light... (Whispered final line, barely audible) ...Justice... demands... its... right... (Final cello note fades completely)