Valen’s voice doesn’t waver. “The dragons. And the Elemental Clans.”
I blink. Dragons.
He nods, as if sensing my doubt.
“The strongest magics in the world does not come from men alone. The dragons understood the threat the Shadow Forces posed—not just to the realm, but to existence itself. And so, three of the most powerful dragons, along with three of the most powerful wielders from each Elemental Clan, came together to create the wards. Among those chosen were the leaders of each clan—the Warlord of Fire, the Water Sage, the Earth Guardian, the Air Highmaster. They were not just rulers. They were the strongest among their people, the ones who could wield their magics at its purest, its rawest.”
My fingers tighten slightly around my cup. “How long ago was this?”
“Five hundred years.”
The weight of that number settles into my bones.
“The war was long, brutal,” Valen continues. “But it was the Fire Clan who led the final stand. It was its warriors, its leadership, its relentless drive that finally pushed the Shadow Forces back. The others followed, but it was the Fire Clan who bore the heaviest burden.”
I exhale, my mind racing. “And the wards—they’ve held ever since?”
Valen tilts his head slightly. “You tell me,” he says.
My stomach tightens. We heard rumors for years. The villages bordering the Forbidden Lands have reported attacks. Travelers have passed through our village sharing stories.
And now I’ve seen the shadows stirring myself.I’ve fought them.
I swallow hard. “Then why are they failing?”
Valen is quiet for a moment. Then, finally, “That is what we need to find out.” His fingers tap once against the wooden table. “The wards were meant to last forever,” he says. “But thirty yearsago, something shifted.”
I sit straighter. The words feel too calm for what they mean.
“At first, no one noticed. The change was subtle, almost imperceptible. The wards were still intact, the Shadow Forces remained contained. But as the years passed, small disturbances began to appear—shifts in energy, inconsistencies in elemental balance, forces stirring where none should have existed.”
He pauses, gaze distant.
“The first signs were ignored. No one believed the wards couldfail. But when the scholars finally looked back—when they traced the records, layered the energy readings, followed the threads—”
He meets my eyes.
“They found the first cracks appeared thirty years ago.”
I inhale slowly, a knot forming in my stomach. I don’t know what’s more terrifying—that the seals are breaking. Or that they’vebeenbreaking.
I exhale, steadying myself. But the truth presses down anyway.
Whatever is unraveling . . . I am at the center of it.
“The wards failing isn’t a secret,” I say. “Everyone knows.”
Valen inclines his head slightly. “Yes. But few understand what it means.”
I press my lips together, considering. “The wards have been weakening for thirty years, and in that same time, the dragon eggs have remained dormant.”
It’s a fact everyone knows. A warning everyone fears. For generations, the dragons of the realm have been a part of the world’s balance—fierce, untethered, powerful. But for the past three decades, their eggs have lain cold and lifeless, refusing to hatch. Not a single new dragon has been born. The connection is obvious—at least to those willing to see it.
The wards were built from the combined magics of thedragons and the elemental clans. If the dragons are failing to reproduce, if their life force is dimming—then the wards that tie them to the realm are failing, too.
Valen watches me, waiting.
“This isn’t just about the Shadow Forces,” I say quietly. “Something is happening to the balance of the world itself.”
