Chapter Text
You will go where the green lands call you,
Where the rivers run slow and warm.
You will go where the soft rains fall on you,
And into valleys beyond the storm.
You will wear their silks and satins,
You will speak their softer tongue.
You will bear their names to their battlements,
You will sing the songs they have sung.
But the mountain will wait.
When their towers seem tall as heaven,
When their halls seem bright as day,
When their words seem sweet as morning,
When their love seems here to stay…
Remember the stone.
For stone does not lie.
Stone does not flatter.
Stone does not die.
Stone does not shatter.
And when their towers crumble to dust,
When their bright halls rust into dust,
When their sweet words fade on the wind,
When their love has finally thinned…
The mountain will still be standing.
And you will return.
Not in triumph, not in glory,
Not with songs of ancient story,
But weary. But worn. But wise.
With mountain winds in your eyes.
And the rune on the door will be waiting,
Carved deep in the ancient stone,
The rune that knows no abating:
You are never on your own..
We Remember means we wait.
We Endure means we hold.
We Return means, however late,
We never let you go.
Come home, daughter of stone.
Come home.
Where the mountain remembers its own.
― A fragment of a longer poem, said to be sung by Royce women as they watch their children leave for distant lands, and again when they return.