The king's orders were clear enough. "Move the tower's shadow," he bellowed. "I refuse to deliver my commencement speech from the dark." As the newly appointed mage to the Crown of Tirlin, Meralda Ovis has no choice but to undertake King Yvin's ill-conceived task. Tirlin's first female mage, and the youngest person to ever don the robes of office, Meralda is determined to prove once and for all that she deserves the title. The Tower, though, holds ancient secrets all its own. Secrets that will soon spell destruction for all of Tirlin-unless Meralda can unravel a monstrous curse laid by a legendary villain seven centuries before she was born.