Work Text:
Tell Tillia I'll return
For months shall I yearn–
For laughter so fair, for gold eyes that burn!--
For I'm bound to set sail,
I'll be back in due turn.
So hold fast to your mail,
My dear please don't wail!
I'll return for your letter,
We'll continue unfettered!
Though I'm bound for the sea,
My heart yearns for thee.
Tell Tillia my words,
Frick asked his dear Queen.
You can tell her yourself–
I'll not intervene!
Tell her why you said nay
When she asked you to stay–
You'll go serve your King
And keep pirates at bay.
She loves you, you know–
And though you must go
Protect precious cargo,
Tell Tillia you'll return
And reply to her letter,
And with her discover your treasure.
Frick took this to heart
As he left to depart.
For 'til Tillia he'd thought
That the sea held his heart.
A soldier turned sailor
His heart never wavered
He’d serve Castle Never,
And sail with Bronn’s favor.
'Til Tillia's stare
With her shining black hair
And appearance most fair–
He'd turned from the ocean
And set plans in motion.
But which love was stronger?
A sailor's devotion?
Or his burgeoning love for Bronn's daughter?
So he sailed off with confidence
In a ship crewed with competence
But with uncertain countenance
As they guarded the continent.
Which love the priority?
The sea, or young royalty?
The sea bade him answer:
Choose Tillia or Thalassa!
And on voyage routine
To patrol for the King
An unforeseen squall
Came to herald the call.
He'd sailed on rough seas
And breathed in the breeze
But as the waves turned to swells
He prayed through the bells
To live through these hells
And tell Tillia–please!
As night turned to day
A call: Look! Starboard way!
There surged through the spray
A forty-gun hired
To hail them with fire
Frick fought for his crew
As he shot and aimed true
Frick fought for his life
To make Tillia his wife
‘Till Tillia he’d have ordered
To hold, give no quarter
Not gunshot nor cannon nor cutlass in hand would
Have stayed Captain Frick from the mission at hand.
Now as forty guns roared and cannonballs tore
Through the sail and the mast with a terrible blast
Frick roared at his crew
That the battle was through:
Get to the boats! Get off the ship, fast!
We’ve lives back ashore;
You’ve much to live for!
I’ve got one last task,
Affairs I must grasp,
But I’m coming too!
I’ll be right behind you.
As wind howled with rain and Frick scowled in pain
To his cabin he sprinted for the letter she’d printed
He’d promised he’d come home,
And Tillia’d be throned!
Boom! called the cannons as Frick ran and scrambled
And Crack! crashed the timbers as the ship turned to cinders
When a twenty-four-pounder
Hit the ship’s stores of powder.
Frick plunged into the surf
And though everything hurt
With a bellowing gasp
He called out his last:
Tell Tillia I love her!
Tell Tillia I’m sorry!
Tell Tillia I’ll come home,
And we'll finish our story!
Tell Tillia I loved her as much as the water,
Though the sea claims her bounty at the end of the slaughter.
He sank ‘neath the waves
To his watery grave
And Tillia lost him–
Her Captain Frick Austen.
She waited and waited
For the joy that was fated
But months, seasons turned–
And he’d still not returned.
‘Til Tillia woke
On a day filled with smoke
With a cough and a choke
For forces infernal
Waged a battle eternal.
The ground tore asunder
With a terrible thunder
As a sorcerous blast
Spelled this day as the last.
From realms eldritch yonder
Came the horrors and monsters.
From the crack in the earth
Marched their masters with mirth.
To arms! Cried the guardsmen
'fore they fell to the demons.
Hold fast! Called the wizards
As they crumbled and withered.
And as the city was sundered
Poor Tillia wondered
Where was Frick?
Would her lover
Return to defend her?
Or would he discover
Long after she slumbered
That he'd come home too late–
To a terrible fate?
The castle walls rumbled
As the royal guards tumbled
'Neath an onslaught of fire
And the battle raged higher.
"Come, Tillia, they're here!"
Cried her parents with fear.
"We've readied a carriage
To escape from this barrage."
But Tillia fled
To the Great Hall instead
Where she sat on her throne,
Face white as a bone.
"I'm sorry, dear Father,"
As she scribbles her name,
"I'm sorry, dear Mother,"
As the hall fills with flame,
She finishes the scroll and commits to the toll.
“You go! You escape!
But I, I must wait
For I’ve promised another–
I’m sure he’s just late!
Dear Father, dear Mother,
from your lovestruck royal daughter, fare-”
Well Tillia waited, for her love to return
He’d promised he’d be back
And then she’d take her turn
The church bells would sing
And she’d put on the ring
Of the life full of love they had earned
But now the bells burn
While she yearns on her throne
For he never came back–
He said he’d be back!
With a crack of the timbers,
The hall all around her
Comes tumbling down in a terrible thunder
As the monsters attack–
And the world fades to black.
When Frick said farewell,
He was bound for the swells,
He pledged her his life
He would make her his wife!
Now she waits in this hell,
Heart consumed by her spell–
For as love turns to hate
And Tillia waits for the man who was late,
She’ll scream higher and higher,
And scream at the liar.
As the flames wrap around her,
She’ll scream on her pyre.
She’ll do what it takes
To amend her heartbreak–
She’ll scream,
And she’ll scream,
And she’ll scream,
Till Tillia–
Wakes.