She concedes a nod, if a dubious one. "A honed technique can be the difference between life and death, that's true." To her, Martin is still a figure of legend in many ways, and some dim part of her is forever surprised to realize that he's alive, he's breathing and human and real. That, and it's been two centuries; the basics, no matter how hard they were once beaten into you, could be lost to such a heavy span of time.

Delphine slips easily into a defensive position, blade up and ready, muscles coiling. Her voice is calm, gruff as always. "Come and see if you can land a hit on me. I'll judge how you need to improve from that, and we'll go from there." She is not afraid. Delphine once sent an entire Thalmor assassination team into the abyss, and so she's quite confident that Martin won't so much as nick her unless she lets him.