Clara pursues Kaelis through the corridors, struggling to keep pace. She overhears him curtly addressing Halazar guards led by Savan, Warden Glavstone’s right-hand man, who are searching for the escaped convict. Though Kaelis asserts his authority, he permits them to search the main hall. Savan spots Clara’s reflection in a window and recognizes her.

Clara flees into a dead-end room containing an automated powder mill for processing Cups inking material, contradicting the crown’s claim that such machines need to be run by people. Kaelis finds her, claims that he would never send his future wife to Halazar, and then accuses her of choosing the Two of Cups to humiliate him. Clara argues that it strengthened their story. However, he correctly deduces that she still loves Liam but claims that his withered heart has nothing to lose.

As she shoves him away, he grabs her burned hands, causing her to cry out. He offers healing, but she refuses. They argue about the mills and Marked Arcanists. He reveals his goal: obtaining the World card, which he insists is real. Clara demands information about Arina in exchange for help. Kaelis feigns ignorance and taunts that her loved ones abandoned her, striking her deepest fear. He forces her to take his arm and magically locks the mill-room door. They encounter Savan again, who recognizes Clara and charges.

Kaelis blocks Savan and reiterates that she is Clara Redwin of Clan Hermit, his betrothed. When Savan calls her a “creature,” Kaelis summons a threatening Knight of Swords and pulls Clara close. She plays along, leaning into him. Kaelis verbally eviscerates Savan, asserting that he has the crown’s authority within the academy. Savan backs down but vows to find proof. After the guards leave, Kaelis tells Clara that he is her only protection.

Clara returns to the main hall just as Professor Thornbrow leads initiates to the dormitories. Luren, Kel, Dristin, and Sorza excitedly discuss the Halazar guards and Clara’s engagement. Clara plays the loyal noble, hoping the escapee is caught. Thornbrow shows them the shared common area with marked stairwells for each house and explains the rules.

Clara finds her luxurious room and discovers that her roommate is Alor Ventall of Clan Tower, sister of the King of House Swords. The wardrobe that Kaelis provided is filled with expensive clothes, and her desk is teeming with inking supplies and a note from Kaelis. She inks an Ace of Wands to burn the note and resolves to secretly build her own deck, vowing to do whatever necessary until she can escape.

Clara wakes from memories of her mother and observes Alor sleeping with a dagger clutched in her hand. After dressing and arming herself with newly inked cards, Clara descends to breakfast in the grand hall. Luren and Kel join her. When Clara mentions being forced into the academy, she quickly covers by feigning eagerness to be near Kaelis. Luren recounts romantic rumors about Clara and the prince. Kel explains that commoners like them are overlooked by nobles, making them good information gatherers. Clara proposes an alliance.

The King of Swords, Emilia Ventall, approaches and confronts Clara about her inking skills, referencing her half-full holster. They engage in a tense exchange about how Clara obtained cards. Emilia warns Clara to stay away from her sister Alor, threatening the wrath of House Swords and Clan Tower. Class bells ring, ending the confrontation.

In the inking workshop, Professor Duskflame outlines the first-year curriculum. Clara finds the rigid, formulaic instruction at odds with her intuitive methods, which Duskflame criticizes. Then, Kaelis interrupts class, claiming that he needs Clara for wedding preparations. Really, Prince Ravin has arrived unannounced and is asking for her.

Clara and Kaelis are both baffled by Ravin’s presence. They meet him in an office flanked by Stellis guards. Kaelis places a possessive hand on Clara’s hip while Ravin apologizes for his previous coldness and invites Clara to a soiree at his residence. Seeing an opportunity to escape and reach her friends, Clara accepts. Angry, Kaelis states that they will attend together. When Ravin departs, Kaelis confronts Clara, who claims to be playing her role and doing whatever it takes to avoid returning to Halazar. Kaelis whispers that his family is dangerous. The bells ring, and Clara leaves for lunch.

In a hallway, a noble initiate named Eza calls to her from an empty classroom, revealing that he knows her Halazar cell number: 205. Panicked, she steps into the room. Then, the door shuts, and two other men grab her before she can summon cards. Eza uses a card on her, and her world tilts into darkness.

Clara finds herself in her Halazar cell, confused about what’s real. A guard escorts her to Warden Glavstone’s office, where she is forced to ink cards in a hidden room. Glavstone becomes increasingly violent and erratic, criticizing her work with each visit. He threatens to Mark her and then burns both her biceps with a hot poker. When he returns, he stabs a pen through her hand, pinning it to the table.

Clara fights back, but Glavstone chokes her. She grabs the pen from her impaled hand and stabs him in the neck, killing him. As guards bang on the door, she tries to ink an escape card, but her hands shake too badly. She discovers that the window in his office looks into her own cell, destabilizing her sense of reality.

She flees through a trapdoor into the dungeons. The world shifts, and she relives the night of her capture in Eclipse City. She recalls taking the job because it offered information about her mother’s death. As she runs through oscillating prison and city landscapes, she hears Eza’s voice questioning how she’s resisting. Desperate for safety, the illusion shifts to the Descent on the day her mother died. Clara witnesses her mother falling as the rope snaps. She lunges forward but is grabbed from behind as a different voice insists that it’s not real and that she’s safe. The illusion shatters. She finds herself in Kaelis’s arms at the academy and collapses, sobbing.

Clara pulls away from Kaelis, mortified by her vulnerability. He explains that she was attacked with the Hanged Man, a Major Arcana card. Clara protests that Majors cannot be inked or used by Arcanists. When she recounts the story of the Fool’s journey and transformation into the Major Arcana, Kaelis interrupts, revealing the true history: The Fool learned from 20 other individuals who already possessed the Majors powers. In return, he taught them to contain their magic in cards. The power of each Major passes to a new person upon the previous wielder’s death through destiny, not bloodlines. These individuals are called magical descendants.

Eza is the current Hanged Man. Kaelis then tells Clara that she is also one of the Twenty: the Wheel of Fortune. He mockingly calls her “Fortune” and invites her to meet the other Major Arcana.

Clara laughs, refusing to believe Kaelis’s revelation. Insisting that it’s true, he compliments her skills and leads her through the academy. In the conservatory, Clara pauses, awed by unfiltered sunlight for the first time in a year. Kaelis correctly guesses that Eza’s illusion put her back in Halazar, and she accuses the prince of leaving her there. When Clara suggests that he tested her before placing her in his debt and forcing cooperation, Kaelis confirms her suspicions and reminds her of his protection.

He leads her to a locked section containing the mausoleum of the last Revisan Queen. Pressing a sapphire on the sarcophagus reveals a hidden staircase. They descend into a cavernous room called the Sanctum of the Majors. Seven others are present: Eza and his two companions, Myrion, Sorza, and two others Clara doesn’t recognize. Kaelis introduces Clara as the newest Major and prepares to leave. When one of Eza’s companions jeers at her for clinging to Kaelis, the prince’s attention snaps back to them. He and Clara play up their betrothal ruse with intimate touches and suggestive words before he finally departs.

Eza and his companions, Cael and Nidus, confront Clara, but Myrion de-escalates the situation. Then, Eza threatens to publicly defeat Clara during the Three of Swords Trials before leaving with his allies.

The remaining Majors introduce themselves: Thal is the Sun, Elorin is the High Priestess, Sorza is Justice, and Myrion is the Lovers. Elorin shares that afternoons are spent together learning about the Major Arcana. Now, they explain that each Major has three powers: a primary power accessed through their Major card, the ability to use other Major cards, and a unique innate ability requiring no card. When Clara reveals that she can ink Minor Arcana cards using nonstandard powders, the others are astonished. They discuss the personal cost of inking Major cards. For example, Elorin must sacrifice a memory.

Elorin instructs Clara and Sorza to meditate on their card’s essence to discover their cost and design. Clara struggles, and when the others leave for dinner, Clara stays. Frustrated and making no progress, she decides to escape the academy instead.

Clara leaves the Sanctum during dinner, determined to find Arina’s secret passage to Eclipse City. Feeling watched, she navigates dark, unused passageways. She suspects Kaelis of playing mind games. The lights suddenly extinguish completely. Invisible hands push and pull at her as she runs in terror through the darkness.

She stumbles into a vast chamber where magical silver flames ignite, revealing a massive, locked door carved with overlapping card symbols. Clara deciphers the puzzle and summons the cards required to open the door. In the next room, she finds a smooth sand floor and 10 razor-thin beams of light. She casts a Three of Wands for safe travel. The beams blink out and reappear in shifting positions. The magic from her card helps her dodge initially, but it begins wearing off. A beam slices her arm. She discovers a human bone shard in the sand, confirming that the trap is lethal. After healing with a Queen of Cups card, another beam slices through her foot, leaving her unable to stand.

She tumbles. As she falls, a light beam cleaves deep into her shoulder, delivering a severe wound. Lying on the sand, bleeding out and unable to move, Clara believes she will die.