Arven chuckled at this, not missing the smoothly flirtatious element to their game. "The world always has you to fall back on", he responded, verily finding her a far more interesting person than he found himself.

He straightened up a little, then looked at his hand as if to check it for blood. "Well what do you know — I'm cured! Another miracle."

He took a step forward and swung the stick-sword over in his hand. "The first miracle being that you've managed to teach an old dog a new trick." They'd only been at this lesson for a matter of minutes, but he'd picked up the basics in a trice. And he liked it. Or maybe it was just the teacher he liked.