AN :
If we hit 400 power stones in 24h I will release another chapter.
In the Game of Stones, you either win or you wait. The more Power Stones you offer, the faster the chapters come.
...
( Jaime Lannister POV )
Jaime Lannister was having the best day of his life. The adoration of the crowd, the grin on his father's face as he ripped through the competition with ease, the frantic waving and cheering from Cersei and Aunt Genna, the sweat, the blood pumping in his ears, the taste of victory after victory.
This, Jaime felt deeply in his heart, was where he was meant to be. In the thick of the fighting surrounded by glory. It was a vindication of his teacher's words, that he really was a natural talent, that amongst all of these other boys, all fighting their hardest, it was him that was the best.
He was smiling like the sun by the time he made the top 20 and the tourney was halted for lunch. He was sweaty and muddy, and he'd been hit in the arm by a glancing blow early in the second round, but he had also knocked no less than 15 other boys out of the tournament, and he knew that all eyes were on him as they approached the finals. Most of all the eyes of his family.
He raced over to the red and gold tent of the Lannisters and arrived to the smell of roasting meat and cheerful laughing, caught across his Torso by Uncle Tygett's forearm.
"Hello there Jaime!"Jaime glanced up, finding a big smile on his Uncle's face before he was suddenly pulled up off the ground onto his Uncle's shoulders. "You did well out there lad."
"Uncle Tygett!" Jaime laughed as his uncle carried him into the main chamber of the tent, everyone was there, and they all looked up with smiles on their faces as he was carried in. It was like a scene out of a dream for the boy.
Even his father had a (small) smile on his face there for Jaime, though it didn't last that long, as he was in the midst of a conversation with Callum by the side of the tent. Still, Jaime didn't let that slow him down, as Uncle Tygett let him off his shoulders and Aunty Genna served him up a small plate of roasted beef and fresh white bread, telling him he couldn't have too much yet, but that there'd be more than enough for him when he won the whole tourney. He could tell she wasn't lying because a pair of servants were busy turning a whole boar on a spit in the firepit at the center of the tent.
"Really you did quite well Jaime." Aunty Genna smiled as she ruffled his hair. "You've done us all proud with that showing, and at your first tournament too." she bobbed her head in excitement, "You'll be one of the best knights in Westeros when you're grown, I'm sure."
"The best, if you train seriously." Uncle Tygett nodded, and Jaime beamed even as he stuffed bread into his face. "Still, don't go thinking that you've got a guaranteed win on your hands, not yet." his mood fell slightly as he glanced up at the man, his face had returned to the stern countenance he expected from his martial uncle.
Jaime swallowed down his food and tilted his head. "Do you think Mace Tyrell will beat me, Uncle Tygett?" Jaime would have had to have been a fool not to notice the other boy who had been ripping through the melee thus far. The Lanky but powerfully muscular Tyrell heir had nearly a foot of height on him, and a great deal of reach. Moreover, his movements gave no doubt that he wasn't a slouch either. Nearly old enough to be in the King's Tourney, Mace was one to watch. He was probably better than most hedge knights in a fight.
"He might." Tygett frowned. "He might, but nothing sure in a melee, you might also be ganged up on by other boys and struck from behind while you focus on the one in front of you, or you might end up knocked to the ground by a tackle of a boy much larger than you who you didn't see coming." His uncle calmly listed the ways Jaime might fail.
"Thus far you've been doing well, keeping the momentum of the fight on your side and denying your opponents a chance to plan around your actions. It's what I told you to do this last week, but as the melee narrows down, the boys you're fighting have been getting more capable, am I wrong?"
Jaime shook his head. "No." it had been easy enough to knock around a bunch of the boys at the start, but as the tourney had gone on Jaime had been less and less able to just completely outmaneuver the boys around him. "They're all much stronger now, either bigger or older, or better at fighting."
"Precisely, that's the nature of being a tourney knight, the closer you are to the top, the harder it gets." Tygett nodded shortly. "You've already proven your skill and honored our house, so I won't lie and tell you you're likely to win, but if you play it clever, and take advantage of your foes now, you've got a chance." Tygett tapped the side of his head. "Tell me, of the boys left now, which of them is the least impressive?"
"Huh?" Jaime blinked, thinking down the list of his fellow competitors. "The Frey bo- no, no it's the Fossoway one, he's not terrible, but he's ungainly with how he moves. His legs are bowed, he might spend too much time in a saddle."
Tygett smiled proudly and nodded. "Aye, if the Prince's tourney had a joust I'd be worried, but that boy's only passable, he's lasted this long by picking his fights." his uncle leaned in. "Now, tell me why that matters."
"Is it because I should take care of the weak opponents first, so I don't get struck from behind as you said?" Jaime asked, thinking back on his uncle's words. "Thin the field so I can give my opponents my complete focus?"
"Close, but not quite." Tygett shook his head. "Let me ask you a different question, if you saw another boy, say the Frey boy, Tytos, I think, in a duel with Mace Tyrell on the field, and they were both striking at each other and only each other, circling about and fighting to the side of the main scrum. Would you leap into it and Strike young Mace in the back of the head with your sword while he was looking at Tytos?"
"What?" Jaime was affronted, almost dropping his beef, though he caught himself. "No, of course not, that would be craven!" Jaime couldn't imagine doing such a thing, not least in front of a tourney audience, he would be known as a blackgard for the rest of his life.
"Precisely." Uncle Tygett said. "All those boys left, they're all proper noble sons, with education in duty and honor and all those same thoughts in your head right now. So tell me, would any of them strike you in the back if you were fighting the Fossoway boy?"
"Eh?" Jaime tilted his head. "No, I suppose they wouldn't, but I could beat him in just a couple of blows, probably. I'd catch him up on his footwork." He could imagine it now, the young man couldn't hope to guard his feet if he took such uncontrolled steps to one side or the other, Jaime would catch him in the ankles and send him to the ground.
"Of course, you can beat him easily." Tygett said, "The trick is that you shouldn't." Jaime's eyes widened as he started to catch on to what his uncle was saying. "You should have a protracted fight instead, a flashy one, that makes both of you look good."
"You mean… toy with him?" Jaime asked, unsure that he wanted to do something so cruel.
"Hold yourself back more like, the important part is simply that it takes a good while to resolve itself," Tygett said, putting a hand on Jaime's shoulder. "Then, when the rest of the boys have fought and thrown each other about, and thinned their numbers in the scrum, defeat him properly, and you'll have dodged most of the really dangerous fighting," Tygett said. "Remember, the best way to defeat a man is to defeat him in his mind, everything else follows after."
"Isn't that… wouldn't that be cheating?" Jaime asked, a bit shocked that his uncle would suggest such a thing, to let all the other boys fight in the scrum, while he practically sat on the sidelines toying with a weaker foe. It just seemed dishonorable, even if he wasn't doing anything necessarily wrong.
His uncle though, shook his head. "Why do you think that in the proper Melee, all the knights break up into pairs to fight things out in the later stages?" Tygett smirked and patted Jaime on the head, before standing back up to his full height.
"The Scrum is good fun for those who don't want to win, but even knights like Ser Arthur Dayne and Ser Barristan Selmy will pair off into duels in the melee, lest they end up dogpiled under the weight of men trying to bring them down for the glory of it. Would you call Ser Selmy dishonorable?"
"Of course not!" Jaime said, shaking off his doubts. "So then, I should stop the duel when the scrum is over?"
"Aye. There's a clever lad." Uncle Tygett nodded. "Now finish your beef, you'll want the strength when the trumpet sounds again." Jaime's uncle smirked, turned, and walked away. Jaime could only watch his big back move and nod.
Yes, it still left a bit of a bad taste in his mouth, but it was fair play also. Otherwise, Ser Barristan and Ser Arthur would never do something like that. He nodded, he would do his best to win so that Father, Aunty, and Uncle would be proud of him. Oh, and Cersei too!
Jamie looked around the tent with a mouthful of roast beef.
Where was Cersei anyway?
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