The centuries had passed slowly for Karen Dragon.
A hundred years had drifted by since he had knelt in the Divine Seal Room and emerged reborn—part Divine Dragonborn, part Black Shadow Dragonborn. Since then, he had become a master of both radiant power and the forgotten shadows, yet no matter how far he traveled, one truth remained:
He was the only one.
The only Black Shadow Dragonborn alive.
Or so he thought.
---
Whispers Beneath Stone
Deep beneath the Obsidian Canyons, where no sunlight reached and the ground breathed magic, Karen walked alone. His steps echoed through an ancient ruin recently uncovered by a shifting quake. The energy here hummed—not divine, not elemental, but shadowed and silent.
He followed the pull instinctively.
It led him to a sealed room hidden behind collapsed stone. As he pressed his palm to the fractured wall, it reacted—glowing with a silver-black hue that responded only to his magic. The stones shifted apart like parting mist, revealing a chamber untouched by time.
Inside it waited:
A single pedestal, covered in dust and silver markings.
And resting on it… a thick, black-bound book.
Karen approached slowly.
---
The Book No One Else Could Read
The book's cover had no title, but as Karen touched it, the runes across its surface shimmered—and a name appeared:
> "To the Last of Our Kind."
His heart skipped a beat.
He opened the book—and found page after page of text written in Shadowscript, a language lost to time.
But he could read it.
> "If you are reading this, then you are the last of the Black Shadow Dragonborn. The world believes us gone. They are not wrong. Our people fell to silence 100,000 years ago… not by war, but by betrayal."
> "We were not wiped out by fate. We were sealed away."
Karen's hands trembled.
> "You are the Key."
The next pages described rituals, memories, names he had never heard before—and a door. A door that no one but a Black Shadow Dragonborn could ever open.
He turned the final page.
> "Behind the Door of Shadows lies the truth of our fall. Go to the Temple of Night's Edge. Bring the book. Speak your name. The shadows will open."
---
The Door of Shadows
Two weeks later, Karen stood at the top of a long-forgotten peak called Night's Edge, where wind howled through jagged rocks and time seemed frozen. At its summit was a temple carved into obsidian, barely standing.
Its entrance was sealed by a door of smooth black stone, with no handle, lock, or keyhole.
He placed his hand against it. The mark on his shoulder pulsed.
Then he spoke, softly but clearly:
> "I am Karen Dragon… last of the Black Shadow Dragonborn."
The book in his other hand shimmered. Silver-black light poured into the door.
A pulse. A heartbeat.
Then the door melted away like mist under moonlight.
Karen stepped inside.
---
The Shadow Archive
Within the hidden chamber, Karen found more than a forgotten room—he found a sanctum of his people. Dark crystal spires lined the walls, glowing with memory and shadow.
Floating in the center of the room was a massive black crystal.
It pulsed as if alive.
Then… it spoke.
> "You carry our blood."
Karen tensed. "Who are you?"
> "I am Vael'Nir, the Shadow Memory. I hold the final echoes of our people's minds. We foresaw extinction. So we poured our essence into this vault, hoping one day… one of us would return."
Karen lowered his head. "I'm sorry I came too late."
> "No," Vael'Nir answered. "You came exactly when the world would need the shadows once more."
---
The Truth of Their Fall
Karen listened in silence as Vael'Nir revealed what had been buried by time:
The Black Shadow Dragonborn were once guardians of balance, wielding shadow not as evil, but as a mirror of light. Their duty was to protect the hidden truths, the unseen threats, and keep the other races in balance.
But fear had grown in the other kingdoms.
Light-wielders feared their silence. Necromancers feared their magic's purity. Even the Divine feared that shadow could surpass the heavens.
So they were betrayed.
Sealed.
Erased from history.
Only one unborn child had escaped—the child of a mother who died sealing his bloodline away… a child destined to awaken 100,000 years later.
> "You are that child, Karen Dragon."
---
The Inheritance
From the crystal's base rose an ancient relic: a blade forged from divine silver and obsidian, pulsing with both light and shadow.
Karen reached for it—and it responded, folding into his grip like it had always belonged there.
> "This is Umbrasil, the Soul of the Forgotten. It is yours now."
Karen stared at the blade, then at the dark crystal pulsing with memories of his lost people.
"I will not let you be forgotten again."
> "Then you must rebuild. And you must beware. The same fear that destroyed us once will rise again."
Karen nodded.
"I won't let the shadows be silenced this time."