My magic drives all hearts and stirs all souls, music that resonates through every mind and from every pyramid in this great Empire. Which I have made. Empire and music both.

I am the Singer, glory incarnate. Song incarnate. Magic made flesh. My strength cannot be measured for I have come into my power like the Singers of old and I will raise the Empire to heights none have ever achieved.

I will wake the world spirit. I will do whatever is necessary for glory. The song is mine and it can never be undone, unsung, unheard.

The song is mine …

I am the song.

I am the song that beats in the blood of millions. I am the song that lulls them to sleep and rouses them to war, that succours the fearful and strengthens the weak.

I am the song and the song is me. I know what it needs; I give it what it craves. I strengthen myself to strengthen the Empire.

To be without me is to be without hope, without faith, without will or might or cunning. To be without me is to betray, to lie and wail and know defeat. To be without me is to die.

I am the song and the song is me. I am unlike all others and my song shall be the lasting melody of the world. I am the sum and pinnacle of all life.

It is my song that raises us up. It is me. My will. My divinity.

My blade.

For I am the song. And the song is me.

TAYAN

Great Octave’s estate, Singing City, Pechacan, Empire of Songs

175th day of the Great Star at morning

Death stalked him.

He’d promised Betsu he would wait a month before leaving, but he was half convinced he wouldn’t live until duskmeal, let alone another two weeks. Something had happened, something momentous that had changed the song, driving it out of its usual beautiful strength into something … lustful.

It had taken hours to settle, imperious as ever, but there was a wildness to it even now, two days later, an edge of danger, as if it danced on the very cusp of madness and the Singer was unable to tame it. Or perhaps he did not want to.

Tayan hadn’t seen Enet since it had happened and none of the slaves would answer his questions or allow him anywhere but the few rooms he’d been granted access to and a small part of the gardens. He ate and sat and walked in silence, in isolation. He didn’t know what had happened, and without the usual excursions the Great Octave had taken him on, he had nothing to distract himself from wild speculation.