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"I hope you brought your dagger with you, because today we're going to try to do some dual-wielding training," he said.
He drew his weapons and said "Watch carefully. Make sure you grip your rapier in your dominant hand, just like always, and keep your dagger in your off-hand. Try this position."
He took the usual position, rapier in front of him, dagger held high, his hand nearly level, the tip pointed slightly downward. The muscles visible in his arm were taut and coupled with the tip of his dagger (despite it being a blunt, wooden, sparring dagger) evoked images of a scorpion's tail. From his ease of movement it would be easy to forget that it was his off-hand weapon.

"Just like that," he said, flashing her a quick smile. "Now what I want you to do is learn how to use the dagger, so today you are not to use your rapier offensively-or not directly," he said, faltering slightly.
"Today, what you're going to do is knock my rapier out of the way and stab me with your dagger, and then later we-" He stopped when he saw her expression.
"Oh, don't worry about me," he said. "I borrowed some of the more reinforced armor from Matasoga's collection, so I'll be totally safe," he said tapping his bracers and patting his chest. Indeed the armor even came up to form a neck guard.
"Just try to limit your strikes to my torso, and don't worry too much if you nick me, elsewhere," he smiled and said "It'll take more than a trainee with a dagger to bring me down."
His smile melted quickly, as if he remembered something, and he quickly added, "My Queen."
Reddening slightly he said "Uh, it's important that you use a real dagger because I want you to get used to the weight... And the danger. We'll switch to weighted practice daggers, later on..."
His stance, which had slackened as he spoke, perked back to it's more dynamic and taut position. "Are you ready?" he asked, epee pointed in her direction.

"Alright. Let me give you an example," he said.
He sidled up to her, with the speed with which he usually fenced, knocked her rapier away, leaving a sound of ringing steel that lingered in the air and used the momentum of the torque of his body to send a stab toward Shanderaa with alarming speed, which slowed at the last moment to be nothing more than a medium poke with a dull piece of wood.
"I, uh... Think that may have been a bit faster than I intended. Would you like to see that a few more times, but a bit slower?" he asked.

Kromli backed away a few steps, took a deep breath and prepared himself. He fumbled several times.
"It's actually a lot harder to do this slowly. When I'm moving quickly, it's all muscle memory and I don't have to think about it, but to slow it down... Gimme a sec," he said.
In the end it took several full minutes before her had it exactly down. Shanderaa likely learned through his trial and error how to do it slowly, just as he did.

Kromli didn't quite pick up on her doubts, but still he said, "Yeah, just like that. Of course you won't be that fast your first time out... But one day, you'll be faster."
"I can tell," he said. "From the way you move and the way you carry yourself. You have greater dexterity than I do. You just need to hone and develop it... And I don't mind. We're both the hands of Matasoga, right? It doesn't matter which one of us is the right and which is the left."
He smiled as he spoke, but his feelings were much easier to read than Matasoga's. The idea of someone that might stick around that was better than him at what he did (or would be) was so alien to him that while what he said was true, the idea would take a little getting used to.

"And there's no need for you to be so polite," he said. "I don't think you realize how much you've improved already... But enough talk. You'll see for yourself in due time. Are you ready to spar?" he asked, tightening his stance.
"By the way, I'll be mostly fending off your attacks with common defensive parries so that you can learn how to avoid and overcome them. I'll only give you a poke with this," he wiggled the blunt, wooden training dagger, "if you let your guard fall."

Kromli kept his stance and beckoned her forward.
"Remember, you have to come at me for this to work," he said.
From deep within the guild hall, via an open window, Ümadbro roared, "Come at me bro!" It was almost surely unrelated, but it brought a small smile to Kromli's lips, in spite of himself.