It had started in the autumn of 1840 when the school was well-established in the Fae community, and almost two hundred years later, the Rite of Passage kept been both part of the welcoming of a new year and the bar with which their new students where measured.

Every time year in Warderlicht the same conversation taked place during the Board's come-back reunion. The idea of re-branding the Tournament floated in the air till someone mentioned the Rite of Passage, then the snake bit its tail when someone mentioned the tradition and how it had been on his or her year. Every single time, that same conversation spawn a stream of memories recap share session between the former students, of which the Board was always proud to find most of its members.

That year, when the Board approached the Location of the Tournament theme, everyone looked at Ardeen with awe, till he raised his hand as he did every year. For him, as it had been for his father before him, that had become something close to a duty, that felt more like a compromise.

It wasn't a matter of choice anymore, far away from the usual walk to the Hauptigesquare Garden, for most of the students, what happened the First Day of Schhol was more than a tradition, a myth. The type of things kids whisper to each other after receiving the admission letter, after a "Did you know that...?". It had been like that forever, and except for counted occasions, it would be, it had became the Academy’s own bar. One carried every year by Ardeen.

That way, the beginning of the new school year was celebrated through it’s first week, going from the Rite of Passage, through the Second Son’s Tournament, and the Fairy’s Weekend.

Whilst the Rite of Passage serve to present the Academy and one to each other, the Tournament was meant to gather a few between them in order to test them. Proved in such matters as raw Skill, sheer Will, and Wit, and encouraged with status, housing privileges, and sponsorship rewards, it’s purpose was to proof what that year's freshman had to offer. A demostration that ended that same weekend, with the Fairy’s Fair, a place for older students to show off their work during the past year, and captivate freshman into their nets.

So every new year, the First School Week’s organization became one of the Board’s main concerns, as the Tournament’s Location was Charles, a sort of ruthless entertainment, one they should bring to shore.

That morning, after Krahen had unchain the Rite of Passage ceremony, conduction the stream of uniformed students from Wanderlicht to the Garden, Charles laughed for his insides.

The reason of Cahrles laugh was standing in the Wanderlicht perimeter fence, it was a black-suited man facing against the stream of uniforms, looking oddly out of place, messy and tired. Charles couldn’t hold it’s fun. That was the second time they had seen each other.

— You're late, Agent, I thought we'd had to start without you —

Specter sighted letting out a breath polluted by coffee.

— No one came for me at the Airport, I had to cross the whole country only to fill in a form and... anyway —

— I thought you'd be fine by yourself since you found us so quickly last time —

— Those were... different situations... I hope you didn't mean to start without me —

Said Specter raising a tired eyebrow.

— I heard you've been promoted, Agent —

Said Charles letting one of his hands fall over Specter's shoulders. The thing was so big that almost made him fall.

— Your partner Smith didn't make the best out of our relationship —

And for a second, Specter's worst fears came true. That was it, finally the old man had rebelled himself, even if precisely at that moment didn't make sense.

— I hope you don't make the same mistakes —

Then he saw the look in Ardeen's eyes, which was a very consciously made threat, he could read. Yet precisely because of that, Specter was able to guess something.

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As the old man went further, behind the stream of uniforms, followed by the rest of the professors, Specter thought about their situation.

Broadly speaking, the Academy was one of the few groups operating legally and independently from any other constraints. Apart from The Fae Folk, or the Hunter Association which had existed for centuries before them, there were only a few more operating at daylight. Any other Organization, Cult, or Sect was purposely hidden and worked as a sort of masonic-private cult for its members. All of them, almost without exception, had te custom of falling short on morally ambiguous business, being hence actively hunted by the A.M.A.T and its books.

Since its foundation, and as it grew into a whole government Agency, the Academy had been known for its collaboration with the Protocole over the years. How that actually worked, was always a mystery, but Specter was starting to understand it.

There, Specter knew that the man known as the most skilled Alchemyst in the country and its army of highly trained teachers maybe wasn't the A.M.A.T best ally, but as the A.M.AT was neither the best guest in the house, nothing good would come out of a war between them. It was a collaboration made out of a secured mutual destruction.

— Take it easy and don't be chasing cars, dawg —

Said a voice in the stream, when Specter turned down, he found one of the teachers standing aside. It was Carpenter, walking at his own pace.

— If you don't want to get hit by —

Something in him hit familiar Specter, but he couldn't recognize what.

— Who says it? —

— Someone who knows —

— Knows what? —

And Carpenter smiled at him

— What the plotline speaks out, pal —

Specter thought, could it be? there, he got hit by one of the uniforms dancing around. It was Kiki.

— You —

She said, eyes wide open, alluringly quiet.

— Park girl —

Then he turned around, but the man had followed his way. Specter remained doubtful.

— Don't call me that ever again —

The girl spoke herself

— Excuse me? —

— It's Kiki —

She insisted

— Why are you here? it's Park again? —

Specter had to shake his head for a moment

— No, it's something completely different, it's a coincidence... I think —

But he didn't believe what he said, he just hadn't proof of anything else yet.

— That sounds unreliable —

The girl answered

— But I'll let it slit —

Then, she kept walking her way

— Wait! —

Shout Specter out

The girl stopped and looked at him straight.

— W-Where's the Ceremony? —

She looked at the stream of students walking around her

— If you can't figure it out, then I'm not sure you'll get around with it —

Specter realized then how tired he really was.

— Just follow me —

Said the girl, turning herself around.

The Hauptigesquare Garden as its name implied, was a big square in the center of the Campus, surrounded by some of the most precious, exotic, and a lot of times valuable showoffs that nature could do. At least in that place. Its value aesthetic nonetheless, was its location, one that Ardeen had considered for that year's Tournament.

Edged on the East by the Library, an immense building of more than four plants, plus two underground. And the Literature Faculty on the West, a moderately smaller building with three levels and almost half of the traffic. The Hauptigesquare Garden was a nature hallway between spaces that separated the Campus itself in two, leaving the areas you would use out of classes on the East side, Dormrooms, Stores, and Recreational Spaces, aside from most Faculties, Classrooms, and Administration buildings on the West side.

Originally, the idea had been to make it a useful space for the Bending Faculty, but when the Library took over its neighbor in both size and conception, it became necessary to move Departments to fit a Literature Faculty. It had been a years-long process thou in which the Garden grew to become twice the size it was originally intended to.

Helped by the Bending students across the years, the Garden was a green-covered yard filled with all kinds of fruit-bearing trees, Squirreling around themselves in impossible ways, mixing colors, flowers, and scents impossible to find anywhere, they sat through a rug of thick grass, feed by a water stream system that flowed from Lacrimosa, a tiny artificial lake set near the Library.

That day, as in every year, the Rite’s location was a mystery, yet, the meeting point had been set in the heart of Huptigesquare, where the old Willow stood, next to Lacrimosa's Lake.

When Oliver stepped in the stone path that ran aside the main road, under the bridge, and into the Lake. He exhaled a big chunk of air.

— There's no way I can remember this place, it's too big —

— Everything in here is, believe me —

Answered America.

— It's beautiful... but hope you don't ever invite me here —

— What are you talking dude? this is already my favorite place here —

Surrounded by uniforms, the two suddenly stopped as the stream around them did.

— What's happening? —

Asked Oliver

— We're already here, look —

It was Shiba Blackwood, standing in the middle of the Lake.

— Ardeen Academy for the Extraordinary welcomes you, future promises, to our Campus of Wonders! —

She said.

— Now, as our new year starts, we'd love to be amazed by what our future holds in store, so regarding that... Let the Rite of Passage begin! —