The day after Choosing, Tidefall deliberately mixed the Orders again. Harper considered this suspicious.

"We just got sorted."

Professor Elowen said, "Placed. Not sorted."

"Same."

"No."

The academy wanted new students to learn immediately that Order boundaries were not social walls. So every first-year received a card listing four activities, one hosted by each Order. Nobody stayed with their own group all day. Jasper's first stop was Calyx greenhouse. Freya met him at the entrance wearing her new trim and looking more comfortable than she had immediately after placement.

"I thought you'd be Velmor," Jasper said.

"I thought I'd be Velmor."

"How's Calyx?"

Freya considered.

"We did weather plants this morning."

"Weather plants?"

"Leaves change angle before pressure drops."

Jasper smiled.

"Sounds Velmor."

Freya smiled back.

"Exactly."

That was the lesson without anyone saying it. Orders had emphasis, not ownership. Calyx could study weather. Brannor could read. Nocten could play handball. Velmor could repair a chair. The greenhouse activity involved repotting seedlings for summer caretakers. Jasper worked with Freya and Callum from Nocten. Callum had stopped his first Choosing attempt and tried again. Nobody mentioned it until Callum did.

"My dad cried more than me."

Freya laughed.

"Mine cried because I got Calyx."

"Happy?"

"Mostly because I got anything."

Jasper said, "My mum cried before I even moved." Normal. They compared parents while filling pots. Next Jasper went to Velmor's upper deck. Theo waited there with a weather ribbon tied around his wrist.

"Velmor has heights."

"You arrived yesterday."

"I have integrated culturally."

The activity was horizon sketching. Jasper sat beside Theo and an older Velmor student. The view stretched farther than the first-year west windows. Tidefall's cliffs curved south. Harbour tiny below. Sea to horizon. Jasper felt Water faintly. He did not turn the session into Sea Studies. He drew. His coastline looked like a potato. Theo's looked worse. They were proud. At Nocten, Soren ran part of a puzzle table despite being new.

"How did they let you do this already?"

"I asked."

"Ava would approve."

The puzzle involved identifying which of five anonymous messages had been written by the same person based on harmless language patterns. Harper arrived from another rotation halfway through.

"Creepy."

"It's about handwriting style," Soren said.

"Still creepy."

A Nocten mentor added, "Which is why we also teach when not to use the skill." Ava, arriving behind Harper, said, "I like them."

"You were meant to be Nocten," Harper said.

"Apparently not."

Jasper's last rotation was Brannor, even though it was his own Order. The task involved building an emergency stretcher from poles and cloth. Harper was already there.

"Finally useful."

"Greenhouse was useful."

"Different useful."

They worked with two Velmor-bound students. Harper knew how to tie the line from Open Week. She started doing everything. Then stopped.

"Do you want me to show or do?"

One student said, "Show." Harper demonstrated once. Jasper noticed. He only smiled. She saw. Then handed over the rope. Did not praise her like a teacher.

"Don't."

"Didn't say anything."

"Face."

By the end of the day, every first-year had spent time in all four Orders. Dinner returned to mixed tables. Theo sat with them despite Velmor. Soren joined later. Freya came with a Calyx friend. Mia was Brannor. Nothing collapsed. Harper looked around the table.

"So the whole panic was stupid."

Ava said, "Emotionally understandable. Factually excessive."

"Stupid with extra words."

"No."

Jasper smiled. The Order trim mattered. It gave people places to root. But the dining hall remained one room. That mattered more.