I don’t often write while listening to music, but I do use music to get me in the right headspace to start writing.

A few highlights:

Child of Ashes by Madds Buckley

The vocal quality of this piece is what I have in mind when I think of Zag’s voice, and the lyrics put me in the space of those early encounters before Zag and Irora got comfortable with each other.

Child of ashes and child without home
Where will you run, in the night?
Child of broken flesh and bones
Where will you go to hide?

Heroes won’t help poor folks like you
Blood on their hands, dust in their shoes
Heroes will hunt you and lead you astray
Don’t cry now my child, here you can stay

Safe in the arms of those who know that you deserve a place
Safe in the hands of those below
We can watch the world decay

The Devil Within by Digital Daggers

This is very much Irora and her revenge, particularly her in opposition to the Commander.

I made myself at home in the cobwebs and the lies
I’m learning all your tricks, I can hurt you from inside
I made myself a promise you would never see me cry
‘Til I make you

Take Him Away by the Dirt Poor Robins

Every time I hear this song I’m thinking of the trial and interrogation scene when Rinvu is first introduced– particularly the awareness of the person standing behind the judge’s podium of just how far removed this situation is from actual justice.

Take him away
I’ve washed my hands and I cannot be blamed
No I will not be liable for his final fate
He will not find justice here today

Irony by the Dirt Poor Robins

There’s a surprising amount of Dirt Poor Robins in my playlist, actually. This one speaks to me of the Commander and the way she’s tied her morality into knots trying to justify herself.

This pride has left you blinded or willfully confused
You thought that when you cried for justice, the target wasn’t you
Yet in the end your fatal flaw, the measurements were wrong
For you saw the sins of others, as greater than your own

Going Down Fighting by Andrewa Wasse and Phlotilla

Going Down Fighting always puts me in the mind of Irora surrendering to Rinvu. Even before she arrives at the gendarmerie, even with all the plans she and her friends have made, in the back of her mind she knows is going to blow up in her face– and she goes anyway. This more than anything else is her defining choice in the book, and it’s the one that hits her hardest with consequences.

If the city’s on fire
I’ll stand in the ashes
There’s no turning back
It’s ready or not
So I’ll fall to my knees
And pray for the masses
‘Cause this world
Is all that we got

(Also: there was a version of this story where the Commander lit the city on fire in order to sway public opinion to her side. That subplot got scrapped, but the vibe of it was still with me when I stumbled on this song.)

Ashes by the Longest Johns

This is very much a Kiha song. They are the beating heart (and let’s face it, the mental stability) of this story, and this song really carries the memory they carry with them, and the aged grief that comes with it.

Do you feel heavy? Your eyes drop with grief
Your spirit is wild and your suffering is brief
So never you buckle and bend to the masses
I’ll tend to the flame; you can worship the ashes

And a special mention:

What Love Can Heartbreak Allow by Ben Caplan

When I think of traditional Mataan music, it sounds like this: a round/perpetual canon in which multiple verses are layered on top of one another.