Three days after the Joker card appeared, the sky split open.

  It began as a shimmer—barely noticeable, just a ripple in the clouds. Then, like the air itself was peeling back, the full weight of magic pressed down on the nd. A shadow moved across the sky, vast and slow and impossibly quiet.

  The Floating Isnd—home of the Academy.

  Every eleven-year-old in House Veylor’s domain was already packed, scrubbed clean, and trembling in pce. They had been chosen, evaluated, ranked, and now they waited for collection. The Floating City passed each of the Twelve House territories once every year, and only those deemed worthy were lifted skyward.

  This year, it moved lower than usual.

  Too low.

  As if it were interested.

  Joseph Quinn stood at the edge of the courtyard with the other chosen children. His bck House-issued travel cloak weighed nothing on his shoulders. He kept his hands folded, posture perfect, eyes lowered—pying the part of the obedient candidate.

  But his mind was elsewhere.

  He remembered the st time the Floating Isnd came for him—how insignificant he had been. A nameless Knight of Spades. No rank. No eyes on him. Just another tool in the line.

  This time, the whispers were already spreading.

  The Joker is among them.

  The wind shifted sharply as the Isnd’s primary transport descended—a sleek bck vessel shaped like a soaring serpent, its wings of mana shimmering translucent gold. Runes glowed across its hull. It didn’t touch the ground, just hovered above the stone ptform near the courtyard.

  The House escort backed away.

  All went silent.

  From the transport, she stepped out.

  A girl. No—a young woman. Tall for her age, maybe fifteen. Robed in white and blue silk ced with House runes. The moment she touched the ramp, the temperature around her shifted—cooler, calmer, like reality was adjusting to her presence.

  Two men followed—elite guards by the way they moved. Wands holstered, enchanted bdes strapped to their backs. Their eyes scanned everything. Everyone.

  The woman stopped at the center of the ptform and looked directly at Joseph.

  She didn’t blink.

  Lady Caelia of House Caervan“She’s from House Caervan,” someone whispered behind him.

  Joseph remembered that name.

  House Caervan — one of the upper-ranked Houses specializing in long-range mana control, enchantment warfare, and domain magic. Not the most brutal, but dangerously intelligent. Their future leader had been a tactician even as a child.

  This girl was her.

  Lady Caelia. Heiress apparent. Unofficially called the “Snow Queen” of the East.

  Joseph had never met her in his st life—she died early in the war, if he remembered right. Sacrificed in a gate rupture on the third continent. Her death had been barely noted.

  Now she was here, eyes locked on him.

  She stepped forward, ignoring the others.

  “You,” she said simply.

  Joseph lifted his gaze, polite, expression unreadable. “My Lady?”

  “You are the Joker?”

  “I am what the card chose,” he replied calmly.

  Silence.

  One of her guards looked ready to intervene—her tone was too forward, too direct for a House heir to use with an unknown boy. But she raised her hand, stopping them.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Joseph Quinn.”

  Her head tilted slightly. “From the branch family?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ve never seen a Joker before,” she said.

  “Neither have I,” Joseph replied.

  That made her pause—and then, for just a second, she smiled.

  It wasn’t warm. It wasn’t cruel. It was… curious.

  “I’ve seen your evaluations,” she said. “House Veylor marked you as a Knight. But the Card system—Joker.”

  Joseph nodded once.

  “You don’t fear it?” she asked.

  “I understand it,” he said.

  Caelia studied him a moment longer, then turned away. “We’re taking everyone on the list. But you…” She gnced back over her shoulder. “I’ll be watching you, Joseph Quinn.”

  He bowed slightly. “That’s fair, my Lady.”

  The Boarding ProcessThe other children were called one by one, names echoing in the air as they climbed the glowing ramp into the serpent-css carrier. Most of them tried not to look at Joseph.

  Some stared with open fear. Others with fascination.

  Joseph ignored them all.

  When his name was called, he walked up the ramp without hesitation. The guards watched him carefully—but didn’t stop him. Inside, the ship was warm and buzzing with runes. Crystals pulsed in the walls, keeping the air light and breathable.

  He took his assigned seat near the back, but not the st row. From this position, he could see the whole ship. Count the guards. Track the mana flow in the walls. Learn.

  He didn’t care who sat near him.

  Until Caelia took the seat directly across.

  “I don’t like chaos,” she said softly, too quiet for the others to hear.

  Joseph tilted his head slightly. “Then it’s good I’m not chaos.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “You’re a Joker.”

  “I’m a choice.”

  That made her eyes narrow, just for a second.

  Then she looked out the window.

  And the ship rose into the sky.

  The Ascent to the AcademyOutside, the world grew small. Hills turned to ripples, rivers to veins, towns to tiny dots of moving life.

  Inside, the silence was heavy.

  Joseph closed his eyes briefly. He remembered this ride—vaguely, from a life now dead. He had sat in the back. Alone. Overlooked.

  This time, he was still alone—but not overlooked.

  A Joker had never entered the Floating Academy. Not from House Veylor. Not in a decade.

  Joseph Quinn was now the anomaly in the system.

  Exactly where he needed to be.