After saving the Sea, Barclay and his fellow apprentices are eager to take part in a new kind of adventure--the Symposium, a set of courses that all apprentices of the Lore Keeper Guild need to pass before they can take their licensing exam. Barclay is excited to travel to the Desert to study at the University of Al Faradh, the most respected school in all the Wilderlands, and to reunite with the new friends he made at the Sea.

He's slightly less excited about the Tourney, the traditional, good-natured prank war between the various apprentice tracks. As an Elsie, he's pretty sure he'll have enough on his hands keeping up with the Symposium without having to worry about stink bombs and slime warfare.

But as mysterious, unnatural sandstorms start to appear around the Desert, there are more than just exams and bragging rights at stake. And the appearance of an exclusive, magical library might just be the key to everything...