"Keeping your weight balanced and using your legs instead of pulling yourself forward."
"Right."
He attempted the movement.
His first try was uneven, but he completed it without assistance.
"There," he said triumphantly.
"Much better."
"Will I be able to do it without thinking eventually?"
"That's the goal."
Harold looked at her.
"You sound like someone who knows a lot about starting over."
Nia paused.
"Sometimes."
"Well, don't rush it. Bodies take the time they take."
She smiled.
"I'll remember that."
It wanted the secret to her technique.
Nia did not believe that one training round could settle every debate people had attached to it.
Unlike the other requests, Rachel had not described Nia as a sensation.
She had written:
Nia read the message twice.
Then she replied.
Nia appreciated the restraint.
Nia sat down slowly.
That meant the message was not simply an angry reaction to a viral clip.
Nia turned the photograph over again.
Her mother looked happy.
She remembered that day clearly.
Nia had won two matches and lost the final.
It was one of Nia's favorite memories.
Now someone had taken that memory and turned it into a warning.
She called Thomas.
He answered after the second ring.
"Nia."
"You've seen the video."
"Yes."
"Did anyone contact you?"
"Victor did."
Nia closed her eyes.
"What did you tell him?"
"The truth about what happened at Ironbridge, as far as I understood it."
She explained the photograph and the message.
"Do you still have the envelope?"
"Yes."
"Keep it."
"I was planning to."
"Don't respond to the sender. Don't speculate about who it is. If you receive more messages, save them."
Nia looked at the photograph.
"Do you think it's connected to Ironbridge?"
"I think it's possible."
"Who would still care about something that happened years ago?"
"People who built their identities around being right. People who fear that admitting a mistake will destroy everything they have accomplished."
Nia swallowed.
"I thought this was behind us."
"So did I."
Then Thomas said, "Listen to me. You have done nothing wrong by training at that academy. You have done nothing wrong by defending yourself. And you have no obligation to reopen an old dispute because someone has decided to provoke you."
Nia's eyes stung.
"I know."
"Do you?"
She looked at her mother's face.
"I think so."
"Then take your time."
After the call, Nia placed the photograph inside a folder with the envelope.
She did not know whether the message was an empty threat or the beginning of something more serious.
Nia stared at the screen.
Then, for the first time, she felt anger rise above the uncertainty.
Not because someone had insulted her.
Because someone was trying to use her mother's memory to control what she did next.
She typed a reply.
She sent it.
The message showed as delivered.
Nia put the phone away.
"You told me not to spend my life answering every challenge," she whispered.
"But you also told me not to abandon things just because they became difficult."
Nia returned the photograph to its place.
She still did not know what she would do about the academy.
But she knew that fear would not make those decisions for her.
The video had brought strangers into her life.
Derek Vaughn spent Wednesday morning writing an apology he did not know how to give.
He deleted it.
He deleted that, too.
Derek closed the document.
The first time he had lost a major match, he had returned to training the following morning.
His coach had praised the decision.
"That's how you become a champion," he had said. "You learn to face the thing that hurt you."
Derek had repeated that lesson for years.
He was tired.
He had business calls.
But the attention did not fade.
The video continued circulating.
The instructor did not mock Derek.
That somehow made the video harder to watch.
Derek had been caught by someone who recognized the opening before he did.
The difference was that Nia had remained calm while he had allowed pride to shape his decisions.
At eleven, Victor called him.
"Are you coming in today?"
Derek hesitated.
"I might come by later."
"We need to discuss the review."
"What review?"
"The student conduct review. I want to hear your account of what happened Saturday and discuss your role in the academy."
Derek's stomach tightened.
"Am I being suspended?"
"No decision has been made."
"That sounds like a yes."
"It sounds like I need to investigate concerns that existed before the video."
Derek looked toward the window.
"What concerns?"
"Several students have raised issues about how you've handled sparring and how you speak to training partners."
"Who?"
"I'm not going to identify students during an initial review."
"So I don't get to defend myself?"
"You'll have an opportunity to respond to specific concerns. But this isn't about hunting for people who criticized you."
Derek stood.
"I've done more for that academy than anyone."
Victor's voice remained calm.