"Could you teach me?" All the introspection and the heartsickness that flickers across Fíadh's expression is too subtle for Pippa to read, and her heart is already set on a different objective: learning how to make a man cry 'uncle' in three punches or less. She steps away from the wall and comes closer to Fíadh, the beginnings of an inquisitive smile on her face. "I'm all right with a sword, and I don't think I'm that bad in a scrap, but I've never been able to, well--"

She gestures at the blood stain again, admiringly.