One year after saving the Sea, Barclay Thorne begins 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. And although Barclay is excited to explore the wonders of the Desert and reunite with old friends, he's less excited about the Tourney, the Symposium's traditional, good-natured prank war among the four apprentice tracks. As an Elsie, he's pretty sure he'll have a hard enough time keeping up with his classes without worrying about stink bombs and slime warfare too.

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