Gale grew up sailing on clouds. While her parents ferried grain across the sky, the young sky-sailor waved at wind spirits, chased her cousins through the rigging, and spied on her brother's magic lessons.
But that was years ago. Now almost seventeen, Gale practices her magic closer to the ground, honing her control of wind and fire in the hopes of passing the trials to join a prestigious mage guild. However, when she fails two trials in a row and becomes entangled with a lost boy ambushed in an alley, she buries her frustration with curiosity for her new friend Tor, particularly the astounding fact that he knows a magic rune which isn't on any of the official lists.
While Gale schemes up ways to entice the reluctant swordsman to register the rune, and therefore found the first new guild in over a century, eerie coincidences begin to haunt their path. A not-dead corpse on the death wagon. A rampaging earth elemental. A boy with a limp. Whispers of stolen power.
When sickness and danger strike too close to home, Gale and her friends, along with questionable allies and a sometimes helpful fire cat, must all dig beneath familiar comforts to confront the conspiracies lurking in the city, following clues buried in secrets, her own stormy past, and the origins of magic itself.