The Dragon in his Soul: Journey Beyond the Vale of Shadows

Lael. Chosen by the Light. Hated by the overlord. Safe within the heart of Hidden Valley.
Or so he thought.
While training to Advance, Lael catches wind of some unsettling news. Servants of the overlord know his location. He doesn’t know when they’ll arrive, but when they do, he’s determined to face them boldly. Really, the only thing he can do to prepare for such an unwelcome occasion is to cultivate his soul. But breaking through to the second drahn takes time...
Too much time.
His training is cut short when Blaise, an exiled son of the overlord, shows up. And there’s no fighting back. The man is a Sapphire—four ranks above Lael’s spiritual standing. To resist is to welcome death. Thus, he and his friends are taken, carried away on an airship set for the heart of the overlord’s empire.
Blaise is pleased with how smoothly things are going . . . He yearns to get back what once was his—the favor of his lord and father. And only the imprisonment of Lael, the one prophesied to slay the cruel oppressor, will satisfy him.
Lael has days before they arrive in the ungodly capital. His circumstances are bleak, but there is a way out of this. Advancement. Reaching Steel will grant him an ability no other Soul artist has ever manifested before. It’s his only hope of putting an end to Blaise, saving his friends, and escaping the clutches of the overlord.
‘Journey Beyond the Vale of Shadows’ is the second book in D. R. R. Hatch’s ‘The Dragon in his Soul,’ a progression fantasy epic. If you like the cultivation and progression of Will Wight’s Unsouled, or the world-ending stakes of Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archives, or the dungeon crawling in Brandon Mull’s Fablehaven, then you will love D. R. R. Hatch’s, The Dragon in His Soul.