Agree to disagree

The Rave existed in a pocket dimension of the academy's official reality. Located in an abandoned corner of the east wing, where administrative offices had stood vacant for nearly a decade, it was simultaneously the school's worst-kept secret and most fiercely protected tradition.

Students spoke of it in hushed tones around faculty, while staff pretended not to notice the periodic disappearance of their charges on certain evenings. As long as nothing dangerous occurred and no one returned to dormitories incapacitated, the academy maintained its willful blindness.

Lucas Grey had inherited stewardship of the Rave from the previous third-year number 1, who had received it from his predecessor, stretching back through generations of Eastern Academy students.

Tonight, he had transformed the space for the qualification celebration. Black lights made the crafted wall graffiti—the accumulated artwork of years—glow with otherworldly intensity.