White cloaks
Lothar earned a nickname by winning the Melee: Lothar the Fierce.
Trystanne was very proud of his former squire and Obella congratulated him personally, she even gave him a kiss on the cheek joking that the knight would have preferred her mother to be the one kissing him, making him blush bright red. His crush on the Princess of Dorne is well known.
Doran ran to him and hugged him with all his might, talking nonstop about how amazing his battle against Prince Duncan was.
Upon receiving his prize from the king, 4,000 golden dragons, he was complimented on his ability.
Many knights and lords wanted to talk to the new celebrity but Lothar was too tired to socialize and excused himself to take a nap and then prepare for the party that night.
***
Princess Shaera kept her promise and took Doran and her children to the markets. Lucerys Velaryon was also invited. Rickard couldn't come with them because his family went with Lord Rodrik, who got pretty bruised after the fighting.
Doran had a good time exploring the markets and buying gifts for his younger brother, uncle, grandparents, and other family members. He was not frugal in his spending, the bets he made in the last few days gave him a lot of coins. He won 90 golden dragons yesterday and almost 1000 today! Almost no one bet on Lothar, only Doran and the odd Dornishman. The 50 golden dragons from his initial bet multiplied many times over.
Prince Duncan and his wife joined them in the middle of the afternoon.
Trystanne spent the rest of the afternoon discussing martial matters with the prince. Ser Lucerys tried to join in the conversation but Prince Aerys wouldn't let him, wanting the knight's attention on him.
`Better him than me,` Doran thinks as he watches the knight struggle to maintain his composure.
In the end it turned out that there were people from Yi Ti and Doran separated from the main group talking to the foreigners for a long time.
It turns out that Yi Ti is a lot like Imperial China; even the language, both spoken and written, is very close to Old Chinese. When he was Harry he only spent a few months in China and what little he knows about Chinese is focused on the Cantonese dialect but he recognizes some kanji that were shown to him by local Asians.
And that is what they are, both in appearance and culture, Yi Ti is the version of this world of china.
`Westeros is very similar to medieval Europe while Yi Ti is almost identical to Imperial China. The resemblance, both in languages and culture, is too uncanny. But these cultures are much older in this world, Westeros barely changed in thousands of years and the same goes for Essos.` Doran can't help but wonder if someone from his world traveled to this one, or maybe someone from this world traveled to Earth. `The question would be who copied who? Or maybe the similarities are coincidental, maybe many worlds in the multiverse are very similar to each other. Perhaps the creator gods are not very creative and copy each other`
Doran is amused by the idea of a bunch of gods suing each other for copyrights.
***
The next two days there is no fighting event, just some contests. Doran liked the horse race which is very similar to the horse races she attended in her past life.
Not many Tourneys have horse races but since Prince Daeron used to enjoy them a lot the King organized one at the Tourney.
The prince also liked the performances of some traveling artists, in particular he enjoyed the performances of a minstrel whose voice reminds him very much of Freddy Mercury.
On the sixth day of the Tourney the jousting is once again the main event.
The fourteen knights take out a stick with a number written on the bottom to decide the matches.
The order is as follows: Lord Sam Tarly VS Ser Gwayne Gaunt, Prince Trystanne Dayne VS Lord Jack Mallister, Ser Gerold Hightower VS Lord Jon Arryn, Ser Harlan Grandison VS Lord Tremond Gargalen, Prince Duncan VS Lord Yohn Royce, Ser Duncan VS Ser Orys the Gallant, Lord Ormund Baratheon VS Ser Tommen Lannister.
The first jousting ended in victory for Ser Gaunt, who broke three spears against Lord Tarly.
The second jousting ended in victory for Prince Trystanne, who unhorsed Lord Mallister in the second round.
The third joust was more lively, Ser Gerold breaking five spears with Lord Arryn before knocking him off his horse. After his injury in the Melee many expected that Ser Gerold would retire from the jousts but fortunately his injury turned out to be only a minor sprain and after resting the last two days he came back stronger than ever.
The fourth joust was quite close, after the opponents broke seven lances Ser Tremond retired after dislocating his shoulder in the seventh round.
The fifth joust was the longest of all, Prince Duncan broke twelve spears against Lord Royce before knocking him from his horse.
The sixth joust was one of the most acclaimed as it was between two members of the kingsguard. The crowd supported Ser Duncan, who ended up knocking his opponent down after breaking eight spears.
The last joust ended with the victory of Lord Baratheon after breaking five spears against the Lannister's shield.
At the end of the seven matches, the opponents had a few hours to rest before the next phase, which was held that same afternoon.
The seven faced each other, and the two knights with the most victories advanced to the final, held the following day; the last day of the Tourney.
The first one was Ser Gerold Hightower who won six of the matches, only losing to Ser Duncan.
Ser Duncan damaged his spear hand in his joust against Lord Baratheon and had to retreat from the Tourney but not before knocking the Barratheon off his horse, destroying his chances of advancing to the finals as he already lost to Hightower and Dayne.
The last finalist was Prince Trystanne, who only lost to Ser Duncan and Ser Hightower.
The other knights did their best and were cheered by the public. The day ended with a surprise, the king summoning Ser Gerold Hightower and Ser Harlan Grandison.
In front of all the Great Houses of Westeros the two knights took off their cloaks, green and blue respectively, and replaced them with white cloaks.
Ser Hightower and Ser Grandison replaced the Kingsguards who died alongside Prince Daeron.
`So that was the hidden aim of this Tourney, choosing two new kingsguard,` Doran realizes.
That same afternoon Lord Arryn fulfilled his promise and Doran was able to see Lord Royce's armor up close, and to his surprise the runes were authentic. Doran doesn't recognize them, during his past life he studied Ancient Runes but none of the Vale Lord's armor runes are familiar to him. They tell him that they are First Men runes and Doran makes a mental note to get some books about them.
During the time the adults chatted among themselves, discussing the jousts, Doran examined the armor and memorized most of the runes.
`One of the perks of being a Master in Occlumency is the enchanted memory` While most branches of Magic are out of his reach given his age, Occlumency once learned becomes almost a natural talent just like snake tongue . Doran doesn't need magic to use some of the benefits of being a Master in Occlumency. `But it would be another story if I had to defend myself against mental attacks...`