The Wisdom of Sand

On a distant island

Wrimmad City, the largest settlement on the remote island of Botzis, is in many ways a low technology backwater fishing village, but for one detail: it boasts the seat of Unitism, the world's second-largest religious order.

Polister Calidon, the leader of that order, has lived a politically complicated but otherwise decently tranquil existence, up until the day an old friend shows up at his door. The friend, Professor Damid Magly, and his companion, Princess Battine Alcon...