A List of Seven

The new hooks were brass. The challenger installed them himself while his companions held the ladder.

Ren watched from below. “Straight,” he said. “People will look at it for years.”

That evening, the students left food outside the workshop. None quite dared to knock. The young instructor finally brought a bowl inside and found Ren repairing a cracked practice stool.

“Why did you leave?” he asked.

“Because I once thought being right meant I could afford to be cruel.” Ren tested the stool. “It cost someone else more than it cost me.”

The instructor looked at his wrapped knee. “Will you teach us?”

“Tomorrow, we learn how to fall.”

Before dawn, a white envelope appeared beneath the gate. Inside lay a photograph of seven young fighters standing on these very steps. Every face was visible in this copy.

On the back, six names had been crossed out.

Ren's was the seventh.

The note underneath contained only one sentence: The man who taught you has begun calling in his debts.

Ren folded the photograph and put it beside his toolbox. In the courtyard, the students were waiting to learn how to stand again.