The Song Of Hollowborn

In the kingdom of Elarion, shadows are not just reflections of form—they are the tether between a soul and the Etherflow, the source of all magic. Without shadows, a person is considered untethered, unnatural, and dangerous. This belief has led to the persecution of the Hollowborn—children born without shadows. Branded as cursed, they are often shunned or abandoned, leaving most to live in secrecy.
But when an ancient darkness begins to stir—known only as the Shade King—the Hollowborn are revealed to be the key to an old prophecy: “Only those untethered by shadow may walk where light does not reign.” This marks the beginning of a race against time to prevent the Shade King’s awakening and the spread of his consuming black fog, which devours entire lands and erases all memory of what once was.
In the forgotten kingdom of Elarion, where magic once flowed as freely as the rivers, a strange affliction begins to spread: children are being born without shadows. These \"Hollowborn,\" as they are called, are feared by their own families and whispered to be cursed harbingers of a coming darkness.
When 17-year-old Leora, a Hollowborn who has hidden her lack of a shadow for years, witnesses her village swallowed whole by a pitch-black fog, she learns the truth—the Hollowborn are not the cause of the darkness, but its only defense. The fog is the work of the Shade King, an ancient entity imprisoned beneath the earth who now seeks to break free and consume the world.
With a band of unlikely allies—a rogue scholar who speaks to spirits, a disgraced knight seeking redemption, and a Hollowborn boy who can steal light—Leora embarks on a perilous journey to uncover the origins of the Shade King and awaken the long-lost magic of the Shadowbinders. But as the darkness creeps closer, Leora begins to question: if the Hollowborn are the key to saving Elarion, why do the shadows themselves whisper her name?