An unexpected sinkhole on a major road in Arcanum unearths a mysterious artifact—a fragment of a cave wall, covered in markings no one can decipher. Mari Espinosa finds herself torn between two opposing worlds: her archaeology team at Arcanum University, charged with studying the wall, and her boyfriend’s team of supernatural investigators—the Nexus Guardians—who are duty bound to figure out whether the wall poses a magickal threat. While everyone in town is talking about the mysterious archeological find, Victor Thorne has summoned Roger Rowe, the so-called Relic Hunter, to town. Hoping to make his visit more profitable, Rowe is making the rounds, visiting Arcanum’s mages in an attempt to buy, sell, and trade magickal artifacts. Does the Relic Hunter know about Arcanum’s latest discovery? And, if so, what plans of his own might he have?