Work Text:
Life (In Bloom)
Oh, free people of Monstadt
you who know the tales of strife
the iron fetters this land once had
sing the glory of Vennessa and her life
Yet, the annals of history forget
the countless peasant-knights
who paid in blood, the debt
of the nobility and their blight
So shall I spin to all a tale
the story behind a name (How vain it would be
Cecilia, the Flower of Gale to keep your name
a life, much like a flame burning bright)
Over green glades and open lakes
into harsh winds above
the grounds many forsake
of mounds forgotten, unloved (“Leave it in the past,” yet)
The heights above Mondstadt free
the burial grounds of blades
of those who did not heed
the rebellion of the Thousand-Flayed
Here, I hold my last vigil (I could not forget
for me and my fallen brethren your iron-soaked hand
Those who cannot bear the sigil the pain
of The Liberated of the Seven and your flickering flame)
Here, we lay to rest (your eyes resigned
ambitious souls of the dead the song of mourning
Scorned departed better left a promise to fade
obscured, like truths unsaid into a lone memory)
The world has no place (for someone as weak as I
for us, the flames of war you were the strongest
And so we shall face you, who lived for us
your lives from afar joined the silence)
May our eternal repose (your final words
be the seal of the past “live on, for me”
Honor the path we chose your blessed winds
and let our wings last like a curse)
Live on for freedom
Live on to live
From her wistful words
sprang forth pale light
turned those tears of hers
to a dove in flight
As she knelt and passed away
a gentle lullaby, a skyward song
held onto her wish, to lay
as a flower that meets the dawn
There, beneath the golden sun (your life, so transient
did the Cecilia-knight embrace I could not let you fade
her noble fate, to become one a story I made
with her homeland and its grace in that, you shall live on)
(In time, I will let you go
like words in the air
into passing thoughts
of memories long-past)
(When you live on through me
the past shall forever haunt
Your words, dear friend
I, too, shall heed them now)
Oh, people of Monstadt free
Barbatos has all given us wings
and the freedom he decrees
to take on what life brings
And so, like today and ever
Remember our past
But dwell on it never
For tears should not last
We are free
(You are free)
And so, shall we live free
(My friend, the Nameless Bard)