After an hour, Felix approached her.
"Can I join you?"
Mara looked at him.
"For what?"
"Training."
"That's what the mats are for."
He smiled awkwardly.
"I deserve that."
Felix joined the drill.
At first, their exchanges were cautious.
But as the session continued, the tension began to fade.
Felix attempted a familiar entry.
Mara defended it.
He tried again with a different angle.
She adjusted.
Mara noticed.
"Better."
He looked surprised.
"That was a compliment?"
"Don't get used to it."
Felix laughed.
For the first time since her arrival, the sound was genuine.
Across the room, Ronan watched them.
He had spent the previous days convincing himself that Mara's victories were an embarrassment that needed to be corrected.
It made him uncomfortable.
It also made him curious.
After training, Ronan approached Mara.
"I want another round."
Felix groaned.
"Seriously?"
Ronan ignored him.
"This time, I want to work on my mistakes. No audience. No challenge."
Mara studied his face.
"Why?"
"Because I'm tired of replaying the last round in my head."
"That sounds like a good reason to train."
Ronan nodded.
They began with a controlled positional exercise.
Ronan focused on maintaining balance and avoiding unnecessary pressure. Mara challenged his posture without trying to force a submission. Whenever he made a mistake, she explained what had happened.
At one point, Ronan rushed a transition and lost his position.
He stopped immediately.
"What did I do wrong?"
"You decided what you wanted to happen before you understood what was happening."
He frowned.
"Explain."
"You committed to the next movement while your current position was unstable. You were thinking about the finish instead of controlling the transition."
Ronan considered that.
Then he reset and tried again.
This time, he moved more carefully.
The exercise lasted twenty minutes.
When they finished, Ronan sat on the edge of the mat, breathing heavily.
"You're a better teacher than I expected," he said.
Mara handed him a bottle of water.
"You're a better student than you were three days ago."
He accepted the bottle.
"That sounds suspiciously like another compliment."
"Don't get used to it."
He laughed despite himself.
For a moment, the academy felt like the place Victor had always claimed it was.
A place where skilled people could learn from one another.
Then Adrian appeared in the doorway.
"Mara, can I speak with you?"
She stood.
"Of course."
Adrian glanced at Ronan and Felix.
"I found something about Richard Vale."
The atmosphere changed immediately.
Mara followed him into the corridor.
"I found a reference to an archived recording connected to your brother's training center. The document suggests that the recording was submitted during the original dispute, but the public report says the footage was incomplete."
Mara's expression tightened.
"Where did you find this?"
"In an old digital archive connected to the organization that acquired Northbridge."
"Can you access the recording?"
"Not yet."
She looked at the photograph.
"Who wrote this note?"
Adrian enlarged the image.
At the bottom was a signature.
Richard Vale.
Mara stared at it.
Five years had passed, but the handwriting was unmistakable.
"What does the note say?"
Adrian read it aloud.
"'Original footage retained pending executive review. Distribution restricted.'"
Mara felt a familiar anger rising inside her.
Now she had evidence that someone had preserved it.
"Can you find out where it is?"
"I'm trying."
Mara returned the phone.
"Don't confront Vale yet."
Adrian raised an eyebrow.
"Why not?"
"Because if he knows we're looking for it, he'll have time to move it."
Adrian studied her.
"You've dealt with him before."
"Yes."
"And you know how he operates."
Mara looked toward the training floor.
"I know how he wants people to believe he operates. That's not always the same thing."
She walked away before Adrian could ask another question.
That evening, she called Daniel.
"I found a reference to the original recording."
There was a long silence.
"Where?"
"Inside the corporate archive."
Daniel exhaled slowly.
"Then it's real."
"You always believed it was."
"I believed someone had kept a copy. I didn't know whether it had survived."
"Daniel, why didn't you tell me you suspected Vale had the footage?"
"Because I didn't want you spending the rest of your life chasing something we might never find."
Mara looked out at the city.
"And now?"
"Now I want you to be careful."
She smiled without humor.
"You've said that before."
"And you've ignored me before."
"Also true."
For the first time that evening, Daniel laughed.
Then his voice became serious again.
"If the recording exists, Mara, don't assume it will tell the whole story. Evidence can be edited. Context can be removed. Even the truth can be made to look like a lie if people see only the part someone wants them to see."
Mara remembered the article announcing her participation in the showcase.
"I understand."
"Do you?"
She looked at the photograph of herself and Daniel on the shelf.