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The present, it has often been said, is as good a time as any.

Therefore, it is soon after his return from Venice that Havelock Vetinari makes his way to and knocks discreetly on Nita Callahan's door.

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He watches the spell-casting with professional interest, then nods at her.

"A few stretches are a good idea. Just enough to loosen the body."

He demonstrates swiftly, arms, neck and legs in succession.

She copies him, a little more slowly, and throws in a few yoga moves Ron showed her a long time back.

He nods, watching them. He's not familiar with yoga as such, but is with the general idea.

"It's generally not a good idea to get into an actual duel with just knives," he says, as they do so.

"And realistically, you probably will not, and will not need to rely on your knife alone, if you do. But I can teach you some basic techniques which should be useful in any case."

She nods, rolls her neck a last time, and slides the knife out of its sheath.

"Sounds good to me."

Havelock does likewise, though where he pull his knife from is less obvious. There's little point going around camouflaged if your weaponry isn't, too.

"The best way to block an incoming blade is to lock your blade against the hilt of your opponent's and push it away from you. If you use enough force, you gain time to either dodge or make an attack of your own. Try stabbing me."

She hesitates, then lunges, dagger out. It's accurate, but slow -- nothing that could actually be a danger.

Havelock matches her speed, blades meeting until his is locked against the hilt of hers.

"I can now put pressure your arm very easily away to remove the danger. If you push forward from the elbow, whether attacking of defending, it allows for a stronger motion. Now try and stop me."

He lunges forward, not too fast, but aimed at her midsection.

She shifts her balance back and catches the blade a little clumsily, mimicking his move.

He nods, stopping his knife against hers.

"Good. Now you can push me off balance, and were you in a combat situation, that should give you the time to get in a killing strike. An ideal knife fight is extremely short."

Provided you are the winner, of course.

She nods, examines their positions --

"Like so?"

-- and pushes out, trying to get him off-balance.

Havelock doesn't resist, letting her shift his position.

"Yes. Speeded up a little, obviously."

"Obviously."

She takes a step back and returns to a ready position.

"Watch the centre of weight. It may betray where your opponent will move."

He shifts, faster, and thrusts again.

She retreats, catches his blade, and half-turns so that he'll go past her.

He nods, following the path.

"That works well. Make sure you keep any weapon I am carrying away from you."

He mimes a quick punch with his free arm to her side.

"Hopefully you will be moving fast enough to remove that possibility, but it is as well to be wary."

She ducks aside.

"Right."

Havelock almost-smiles at her.

"Then we can try adding a few other techniques."

He steps back to continue the lesson.

They work for about an hour, Havelock quietly correcting Nita's form as necessary. By the end of the lesson, they're moving at a reasonably fast pace -- though not exactly at a realistic fighting speed.

Finally, Nita steps back from another exchange of blows and shifts her dagger to her left hand, shaking out her right.

He nods at her, knife vanishing confusingly - possibly up a sleeve, possibly not.

"You're good at this."

"Thanks." She gives him a slightly out-of-breath, pleased smile. "You're a good teacher."

He shrugs.

"It's simple enough. Though I chose not to use the, ah, competitive method of teaching."

The one where you pass if you survive your lesson.

"Shall we head in?"