John offers him a grateful smile at those suggestions.

“Of course,” he replies. “Just as we all hail from our own separate worlds, I can only imagine that we all possess our own unique specialties as well. Mine just so happens to be fencing — I’ve trained since I was a boy. And even if there are others who know sword work here, surely there are techniques we might be able to teach each other in kind.”

His smile widens, a little. “It will help me feel better about my incompetencies in the other areas, such as your own.”