12-year-old Ursel Goodall loves every minute spent at Mortar Veil-the top all-girls pagan academy she attends. She's obsessed with potion-making class, the popular witch sport SPAR, and the school's empathic guard cat, Lix. But when Ursel's the last witchling to get her moon cycle, she's deemed weak, and there's no place for weak witchlings at Mortar Veil.

No one understands the school's elitism better than Ursel's best friend, Tsiya Moon. Tsiya was born outside her gender, and even though she's the most powerful witchling at school, she's excluded from Mortar Veil's coming-of-age ceremony. All Tsiya wants is to be accepted and celebrated like everyone else.

To prove they belong, Ursel and Tsiya team up to enter the end-of-the-year SPAR tournament. If they win, Tsiya could finally get the coming-of-age ceremony she deserves and Ursel could prove her magical prowess once and for all. However, if they're defeated, they'll be worse than losers. In the eyes of the other witchlings, they may as well be nothing.

Failure is not an option.