"And I probably really wouldn't care about whether it was right to torture someone if they murdered my dad. But still."

"But still what? Why should we care if we win?"

"Because then people'll agree we're right - okay, when put that way it sounds stupid -"

"Yes, a bit."

"I still wanna win."

"Well, I wouldn't want you to throw the duel."

And Karen is caught up on the situation.

"I'm not sure which of us would be better -"

"We should specialize more, have someone get good at duels, it might come up."

"You don't have to win!"

"There will still probably be occasions when it's useful to be good at duelling!"

"Well, I suppose we could duel each other and see who wins but if we wound up getting hurt it'd put us at a disadvantage for this evening."

" - yeah. Would it be unsporting to just ask one of my older brothers who'd definitely win -"

"It doesn't! Matter! If you win!"

"Would it be unsporting to ask one of my older brothers who definitely wouldn't get hurt, then!"

"Maybe? I am not sure, MacDougal mostly covers practicals and not etiquette. I bet Michael knows duel etiquette?"

"Yeah because half his relationships end in duels."

"Yeah that's why I think so. And all the other duels."

"There are kind of a lot of them. Let's go find him."

So they go find Michael and "Is it bad dueling etiquette to get an older second, Karen or Minor would do it but I'm worried they'll get hurt - also for future reference how am I supposed to decline a duel if 'I decline your challenge' isn't it -"

"Ooooh, who're you dueling? - a year'd be all right but it'd be fairly poor etiquette to duel a child once you're of age unless they really provoked you and wouldn't back down - though if whoever you're dueling has an older sibling I could fight them and there'd be nothing unsporting about that -"

"Prewett. She's just got little siblings and I think Avery's her cousin."

"Yeah unless she, like, tried to strangle you in your sleep it'd be pretty unfair to have someone older settle it for you - in future you can say 'I regret my words and am unwilling to defend them', that'd settle it -"

Miranda writes that down. "She didn't try to strangle me in my sleep. I have no idea how good Prewett is in a duel, either."

"You're third years, I am presuming someone'll knock someone over and that'll be it -"