Belili, a slave girl of thirteen summers living on a remote farming estate, is woken by a prophetic dream. Unable to shake what she saw, she sneaks into the hills in the middle of the night only to find the injured master Jas'ar sitting between the bodies of the warrior priests who have been pursuing him for days. When she decides to help the magus, she doesn't know what perils she brings down on her people, nor that this is the beginning of her dangerous journey to becoming a powerful magus in her own right.

This fantasy world is inspired by the bronze age mythology of Babylon, Sumer, and Ancient Egypt.

Birth of a Magus is a side story of The Reluctant Magi series, telling the origin story of the sage Bel'Sara. It can be read as a stand-alone story.