"The first thing to remember," Eragos told her quietly. "Is your footwork. Balance cannot be sacrificed for harm."
The second thing to remember, Valos' voice said in the back of his mind, is not to die.
It felt strange to advance on an opponent without a buckler in his hand. Then again, she was not an opponent, and he had no need of a buckler. They ought to do forms first, but she needed to realize that she couldn't rely on the same footwork that carried her through fighting with her fists. Wild moves and swinging centers of gravity were fine there, or at least were expected. A glancing blow could harm as much as a blade, but this blade needed power behind it to find a killing stroke, and your feet delivered weight - which allowed you to deliver strength and power. If you didn't plant them properly, then you were dead. Or possibly just extremely foolish. He spun the sword a second time, began circling as she did.
"Off-balance, swinging a sword does little good. No matter how powerful your shoulders are, your blade is easy to deflect and easier to avoid."
He demonstrated by planting his forward foot and thrusting with the blade. It twisted to one side as though deflected by a blade, and his arm twisted in response, bringing the sword up to block an imaginary attack. This was followed by a lunging slash that ended the pretend and somewhat shortened duel. All that in the span of a second, perhaps two. But he didn't want her thinking about how to use the sword. He wanted her to think about how to move and how to balance, how to shift from attack to defend without moving by shifting her weight. Those were the things to remember. It wasn't a traditional lesson, but then again, Valos had given him only the barest of instructions in sword combat. Only by learning and then doing had he managed to finally best his father in a fight.
What seemed like a thousand years ago.
"Steady your breathing," Hasna added helpfully. "You sound like you just ran ten miles to get your first lesson, girl."
"It also helps," Eragos added as an afterthought. "If Hasna keeps her mouth shut."
The old Teacher glared as Eragos watched Eithne, waiting for something. A sign, perhaps, or some statement on what she was doing here in the first place. None of this made any sense. Vargis gave her his sword? The sword that was a gift from Eragos, a gift for surviving the war together? Why would the old man give it away knowing Eragos had lost its twin? And why would he give it to someone who had no idea how to use a blade? Eragos did not want to imagine that Vargis was somehow angry with him. That was a question for later. For now, he had a lesson to impart to a student.
"Most of all, don't be discouraged," Eragos advised. "When you cannot hit me."