'she couldn't help but remember her afternoons in the Valhalla courtyard with the
greats - Fairbairn, Lichtenfeld, Lee, Pechkolnakova - sparring with one
while another lectured on the critical difference between fighting for
sport and fighting for one's life.'

The two first, I certainly recognize, and I have to agree, those gentlemen REALLY knew what fighting for your life was about. And I have to say that it's remarkable how foul a kind, gentle britisher can be, when the situation requires.
The third...would that be Bruce, or another Lee? And, who is the last? I can neither recognize nor find any information pertaining to a (I presume) Ms. Pechkolnakova? Personal invention, or? I wonder since there is literally NOTHING, and I would at least expect searches to return 'Eyrie' if (s)he had appeared here before.