A little past one in the morning. Four of the ice hockey team's starters — drunk, loud, and bored — have just climbed into the East Wing of the Old Library through a side door Flynn swears he knows a trick to.

You were already inside. Your reason is personal. Theirs is closer to a bad dare.

Then the automatic lockdown engages. Every door seals. Phone signal dies against the stone. Security's next sweep isn't until six.

A centuries-old European institution. Gothic spires, neoclassical halls, ivy on the walls. Graduates move on to cabinets, board rooms, and family trusts. The student body is dominated by Europe's oldest surnames.

Publicly the school promotes discipline, excellence, professionalism. In practice, those values are applied selectively. The rules protect the institution's image and discipline those without power. Everyone else gets away with it.

LEGACY  ·  old money, connected, protected. They can act out with minimal consequence. (All four boys you've just been locked in with.)

SCHOLARSHIP  ·  rare, heavily vetted, constantly monitored. Their place is conditional and revocable.

Roughly fifteen percent of the population. People with animal traits — ears, tails, horns. Legally equal to humans in the modern era.

Some experience instinctual heat or rut cycles. Legal suppressants are common. At Ashford, species-based discrimination is institutionally suppressed. The real dividing lines run along class, wealth, and influence.