When Jax—a fearless young rigger raised by the Rooted—meets Elira—a tower-born girl questioning everything—their connection sparks a rebellion that could reunite a divided world.
Beneath the Cloudline is a YA sci-fi fable about broken systems, shared myths, and the climb back to unity.
Book One
A story of division, memory, and the climb back to unity.
Jax was raised on the ground, among storytellers, riggers, and rebels. He swings from scaffold lines, cleans the tower glass, and hums the hymns of the Rooted. But when a girl from the towers sees him—and sees herself in his reflection—everything changes.
Elira was born in the clouds, engineered for obedience and groomed for power. But one question sparks a fire her tutors never prepared her for: What was buried to build the sky?
Together, they uncover a secret that could unravel the myths of their world—one rope line, one memory, one echo at a time.
A World Divided
High above the clouds, the ten towers of Halidom gleam with filtered air, glass walls, and curated perfection. But beneath them lies a living city—rooted in stories, sweat, and song. The Rooted keep the towers breathing… even as they're forgotten by the ones they support.
Now, the system that erased Jax is watching again. And the climb back to truth begins.
The Giver
Skyward
Hayao Miyazaki-style worldbuilding
Class-divided sci-fi with a hopeful heart
Found family
Revolution without war
Identity, legacy, and re-learning truth
The power of story, rhythm, and memory
Book Two of Beneath the Cloudline
Before the towers reached for the sky, they were built to survive the ground.
To protect the city of Halidom, Jax and Elira join forces with Wren — a seedbinder child from beyond the mist — and Zinn, a sharp-tongued climber who’s scaled more towers than he’s followed rules. Together, they must descend into the one spire sealed before the others rose: the Eleventh Spire. A place exiled, erased… and no longer empty.
Whispers of the Bloom — the invasive memory-seed that nearly ended the world — echo through the roots of a forgotten spire. The rain is changing. And someone has tampered with the Cloudline’s core.
Some roots don’t grow. Some roots wait. Some… remember.
Book Three of Beneath the Cloudline
A city of song. A sky stitched against the dark.
Above the mist, nine great airships drift in unison — not as vessels, but as one woven city. The Skyloom.
Held together by ancient harmonics, its song shields the valleys below from the Rootbanes' return. But the harmony is fading. One of the ships has gone silent.
When Jax joins the phase-runners of the sky, he uncovers a forgotten truth: the towers below were never the whole system. They were only the anchors. The real safeguard was always sung.
Now the melody falters. And what waits beneath the silence is listening. The threat is ascending, and the ground must remember how to sing.
Patrick LaJuett is a storyteller, designer, and lifelong explorer of the edges between sky and soil. He writes luminous fables that blend future tech with forgotten myths, always asking: What if the systems we built forgot who they were for?
Beneath the Cloudline is his debut novel — a tribute to second chances, engineering empathy, and the truths that outlast silence.
