Ren was on the training ground at 5:15.
She ran through her kata twice. Slowly. The way you run through something when you are not practicing the movements, but practicing the state of mind that produces them. Steady, present. Not looking ahead to what was coming. Just here, in this paved space with the chain-link fence and the morning light and the sound of the campus beginning to wake up around her.
When she finished, she stood still for a moment.
She thought about what her father used to say on the morning of a competition. He would make breakfast, and they would eat together without talking much. And when she stood up to go, he would say simply, "Do what you know how to do. Not win. Not be great. Not prove anything to anyone. Do what you know how to do."
She picked up her towel and walked back to her apartment.
By 8:00, she was sitting at Tusk's office door. He opened it before she knocked.
He had two cups of tea ready, and the legal pad from earlier in the week, with additional notes in his careful, small handwriting. He had spent part of the night on the phone. She could tell. The lines around his eyes were deeper than they had been 2 days ago, and he had the focused quality of someone who had passed through tiredness and come out the other side of it into something clearer.
"Deanna is taking the train from Columbus this morning," he said. "She will be on campus by noon."
Ren nodded.
"She wants to meet you before the hearing," he said. "She asked me to tell you that."
"Of course."
He looked at her. "How are you?"
It was a direct question. Not the kind people ask to fill space. She gave it a direct answer.
"I am ready," she said.
He nodded once.
Then he slid a sheet of paper across the desk. "I wrote out the timeline of the three complaints. Dates, file numbers, the names of the officials who signed the closure documents. It is in a format the committee can use directly." He paused. "Professor Marsh called me last night. She is bringing the binders."
"I know. We spoke at 9."
"And Fuller?"
"She confirmed the hearing is at 2:00. She said the associate provost's office called her yesterday afternoon requesting a postponement. She denied the request." Ren paused. "She used the word 'denied.' Not 'declined.' Denied."
Something moved across Tusk's face. Quiet satisfaction. The kind that comes not from victory, but from watching someone remember who they are.
"Good," he said.