Nika leaned her elbows against the cold windowsill in the boarding house of the School of New Perspectives, looking out of the window at the glittering courtyard below. The clock read 2:13 a.m., and the light from the lantern outside the window cast harsh shadows on the green grass. Insomnia was a common affliction here - you could feel the tension among the students, which did not disappear even after midnight. The school, seemingly ideal and progressive, had its own rules. The focus here was on success, competition was fierce and failure was treated as a personal defeat. There was no room for weakness or error. As much as she enjoyed the challenge, Nika was fiercely looking for something more - a spark to make each day more important than the last. That night, as she tried to get her thoughts under control, Inga, her best friend, sneaked into her room. She was wearing a long dressing gown and a hoodie with the school logo on it - a graceful camouflage for those who dared to break the night's silence. Inga handed her a small folded piece of paper. "I found this in a literature textbook," she whispered. "See, there's just one sentence: 'When the shadows become longer than the walls, it's time to go down to the cellar.'" Niki's heart beat faster. For weeks there had been rumours of unauthorised meetings - allegedly, somewhere in the basement there were late-night gatherings of students who wanted to break free from the school rules. The club was spoken of either with fascination or fear. So far, none of them had any proof of its existence. The courtyard was tempting and the basement staircase had never looked so mysterious before. Nika looked meaningfully at Inga. They leaned against the cold walls of the corridor, silently shuffling under the watchful eye of the cameras. When they reached the cellar door, they found it was ajar - and from behind it they could hear quiet whispers and soft sounds of music, as if someone was playing an old piano. Inga looked at Nika, and the latter breathed deeply, feeling that they were entering a world they had hitherto only dared to dream about. They clasped hands, and the door squeaked as they carefully swung it open....