Ashen Locket
“Ashen Locket” tells of a pendant that erases the wearer’s memories with every passing day.
Through Corin’s quiet reflections, the Room’s curse unfolds — a haunting folk-ballad of love that fades even as it’s remembered.
What begins as a promise between lovers becomes a slow unraveling. Each verse captures a fragment of memory slipping away: a face, a name, a scent left in the rain. The melody moves like breath — fragile, circular, and fading with every repetition — echoing how the locket’s weight becomes lighter as its memories disappear.
Ashen locket, quiet flame,
Take her voice, erase her name.
Persona — Corin Duttoni
Here, Corin sings not as the traveler or the Door-Bearer, but as the witness — the one who saw what became of her.
The Ashen Locket belonged to a woman who wore it believing it would preserve a love now long gone, but with every day, it took another piece of her away.
Corin’s voice carries both awe and sorrow — he recounts her fading as though he’s trying to remember her for her own sake.
When he tries the locket himself, nothing happens, yet the moment stays with him like a quiet riddle.
He doesn’t say why — only that the chain still burned against his chest, a trace of something the Room wanted him to feel.
Lyrics
[Verse 1]
Around her neck, there’s only smoke,
But in the glass, a locket shows.
Her eyes forget the road she walked,
Her mouth forgets the names it spoke.
I watch the chain erase her skin,
The silver hums and pulls her in.
The more she wears, the more she fades,
Her song dissolves in shadowed waves.
[Chorus 1]
Ashen locket, whisper slow,
Take the face she used to know.
Ash and locked in, thread unspun,
Every memory comes undone.
[Verse 2]
I saw the stranger in the chain,
Etched in silver, etched in pain.
To me, it drifts, a fading breath,
To her, it hums the hymn of death.
And in the mirror, truth is clear,
A locket gleams, but not from here.
It holds the curse the Room designed,
A love erased, a hollow mind.
[Chorus 2]
Ashen locket, shadow’s vow,
She forgets the here and now.
Ash unlocked it, smoke within,
Carves the curse beneath her skin.
[Bridge]
I tried it once, but nothing hung,
Only haze inside my lungs.
The key I held kept me awake,
But left me trembling in its wake.
A moment lost, a year undone,
I felt the weight of what’s begun.
The chain still burned against my chest,
A tether cursed, a cruel unrest.
[Verse 3]
Now she hums a song with no refrain,
Repeats a word but not my name.
The locket gleams when glass divides,
But to my sight it’s only sky.
Her memory drifts, her laughter gone,
The smoke consumes, the curse lives on.
Not monsters here, but sorrow’s art,
The Room has locked away her heart.
[Chorus 3]
Ashen locket, quiet flame,
Take her voice, erase her name.
Ask and locked in, stranger’s art,
Leave her hollow, leave her heart.
[Outro]
She wears the smoke, she wears the chain,
Both the locket and the bane.
Lore Tie-ins
- The Ashen Locket is an artifact within The Vanishing Room — one of several manifestations left behind by those who forgot their names.
- Its origin is unknown, but its ash-like surface appears to shift with faint reflections of the wearer’s memories.
- Corin’s use of the locket symbolizes his attempt to escape the burden of his role as the Door-Bearer — suggesting that even he longs to be free of remembering.
- The song establishes memory as currency within Spider Alley’s mythology — to survive, something must always be forgotten.