Nick Sever has been invited to take classes at Grimhild Academy. His limited magic puts him in a class of misfits who are all struggling to master their skills. Nick wants to excel but finds that his only spell is nothing like what others are doing, and a menace from the past thinks he has the one thing needed to wipe the school off the face of the realm. Can Nick and his friends stand up to the mages in training, snotty teachers, monsters trying to eat the students while they train, and the hidden minions of the Warlord of Darkness?