For hundreds of years, high-born nobles have competed for the chance to learn of the Mystic. Powerful, revered, and often reclusive, Mystics have the unique ability to summon and manipulate the Myst: the underlying energy that lives at the heart of the universe. Once in a very great while, they take an apprentice, always from the most privileged sects of society. Such has always been the tradition--until a new High Mystic takes her seat and chooses Pomella AnDone, a restless, low-born teenager, as a candidate.