LILY
oh, cover your crystal eyes
and let your colors bleed and blend with mine
and let your colors bleed and blend with mine
It isn’t until midway through Good King Wencelas that Lily notices the additions to the crowd and smiles to herself - and to the lovely new additions.
She runs through a couple more, but then it’s time to draw the concert to a close. And it’s time to do it with a very special song. Setting the musical machine down, she takes a sip of tea and then glances almost shyly around the room. “This will be the last song. It was commissioned by Ianto in return for an item from the Wishing Wagon. If I had been better, I might have had it done before the blight, but unfortunately…” her arms spread wide in a shrug. They all know. Nothing could be done. “So I am proud to present Arduinna, because I am not great at naming things, and because it is dedicated to the woman who saved us.” With a delicate little clearing of her voice, Lily stands and hums a note, prompting the machine to kick in with what sounds like epic and slightly sorrowful brass and string instruments.
“Go out and tell her story
Let it echo far and wide
Make them hear you
Make them hear you
How fearless was her battle
How she gave her very life
Make them hear you
Make them hear you
And say to those who loved her,
to the Fae of Sidhe and Stone
To the creatures of the Wildwood,
All who call the forest Home
That her beauty and her power lives
in selfless sacrifice
Make them hear you
Make them hear you”
The music begins to build, to swell, signaling a change in tone. Lily’s voice rises a little bit.
In Safrin's Shrine she kneels in prayer
Black as the blight's foul mess
Vi's roses make a godly bed
For Arduinna's loyal rest.”
Now the crescendo. She begins the next verse with renewed vigor. So, too, do new instruments seem to complement and lift up the words.
"Go out and tell her story
to your daughters and your sons
make them hear you
make them hear you
You must tell them of her fire,
of her eyes that shined like gold
Make them hear you
Make them hear you
Remember how she healed us
Sucked the poison, took it in
Teach every child to kiss her cheek
and then, my darlings, then”
The final verse, and Lily is as loud as she dares; so caught up is the singer in the emotions of singing this song aloud, in the emotional distress all that happened during the blighted days that the firelight reflects tears in the redhead’s eyes.
“Will Arduinna be belov'd
In the hearts of Caido's men
Make them hear you
When they hear you
She'll be near you, again.”
No matter what they personally think of the wild fae, they had to agree that the tribute was fitting. Arduinna had saved them. And now she’ll be remembered. When the last note fades from the room, Lily bows her head for a moment and then looks out at her audience with a small, sad smile on her face.
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Arduinna is based off of Ragtime's Make Them Hear You, which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYc2T_BlPx4&list=RDJaacWTKJBcc&index=2
Just imagine a women's voice singing it!
