Participating in the tournament did not necessarily require staying in a tent. In fact, Dany returned to the city to sleep at night. However, the open space outside the city provided an excellent environment for practicing riding and combat skills.
Although Dany had trained in jousting before, this was her first time in an actual competition.
She planned to sharpen her skills with the old knight's guidance before the tournament officially began in two days. She did not expect significant improvement, but at the very least, she wanted to familiarize herself with the atmosphere of a jousting match.
Starting from the base of the city walls and extending half a kilometer north along the Honeywine River, hundreds of lavish tents in blue, white, beige, yellow, and red could be seen. This area, enclosed by fences, was reserved for the nobility.
Knights donned gleaming armor, rode towering warhorses draped in gold and silver embellishments, and brandished banners bearing their family crests as they galloped through the encampment.
Farther away, a scattering of unorganized tents dotted the open land near the river. There were no fences, trenches, or planning—just a chaotic spread of camps. Among them was a tent of green canvas, which belonged to Dany.
She was not the only one practicing riding and jousting techniques. In fact, her dull and battle-worn armor, which had been tempered over a campfire, made her blend in seamlessly among the mercenaries.
During the two days she spent training, carpenters erected a massive wooden grandstand and jousting arena in the vast wheat fields along Rose Road, which had already been harvested.
The scale was immense. The slender jousting track was flanked by main grandstands that soared at least 15 meters high, with five levels in total.
Of course, not all knights were qualified to compete in the main arena.
The number of participants in this tournament was considered "small"—only about 2,500 riders. When Dany expressed her amazement at the turnout, the old knight informed her that he had participated in at least twenty tournaments in his lifetime, and this one was only of medium-to-lower scale.
Dany was stunned. "You're only sixty-four and have already competed in over twenty tournaments? That's incredibly frequent!"
"Haha, if you really count them, in just the fourteen years of King Robert's reign, more than twenty tournaments were held.
But as a Kingsguard, I had to remain by the king's side—especially King Aerys. Unlike Robert, he had no interest in watching tournaments."
"The people of the Seven Kingdoms love tournaments this much?" Dany found it hard to believe.
"What else do the nobles have to do besides tournaments?" Barristan scoffed. "When Eddard was appointed Hand of the King, they held a 'Hand's Tourney.'
Just four months ago, for Prince Joffrey's twelfth name day, King Robert hosted a tournament.
That's already two in one year, just in King's Landing.
If a noble house has extra gold and happens to want to celebrate a child's birthday, they can host a tournament as well."
In fact, that year, King's Landing hosted three tournaments: one for Joffrey's name day, one for the appointment of the Hand, and one for Joffrey's coronation.
"How many tournaments have you won?" Dany asked.
"Five or six, perhaps. Besides strength and skill, luck is also a major factor."
On the third day of Dany's arrival in Oldtown, Drogon soared through the skies at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour, gliding non-stop for two nights and a day. He traversed nearly 8,000 kilometers and returned to Astapor.
In his draconic awareness, Drogon scratched out roughly a thousand words on the ground, detailing Dany's activities over the past week—skipping over the part about Lynesse—and delivered both good and bad news to Jorah.
The good news: House Mormont did not suffer significant losses in the Red Wedding.
The bad news: Your father, Commander Jeor Mormont, has died beyond the Wall.
The Night's Watch betrayed their sacred guest rights and killed Craster, who had been hosting them. In the ensuing conflict, old Mormont was slain by his own sworn brothers—those who had once vowed to forsake all past ties and recognize only their fellow Watchmen as brothers.
It had to be said: When a nation is on the brink of collapse, monsters emerge. Beyond the White Walkers—the visible "great demons"—the corruption of human nature was even more terrifying.
Upon hearing of his father's tragic death, Jorah broke down, weeping uncontrollably and blaming himself: "I have disgraced my father and shamed House Mormont…"
Through Drogon's eyes, Dany watched him sob, feeling a pang of sorrow.
"A child longing to repay their parents' love, only to find them gone—it's a sorrowful truth in any world."
For a brief moment, she even considered having Drogon carry Jorah home for his father's funeral. But then she realized—Jeor Mormont had died at Craster's Keep, which had most likely fallen to the White Walkers. The odds were overwhelmingly high that Jorah's father had already become an undead wight.
"How can you hold a funeral for that?"
As she wrestled with these thoughts, another realization struck her: While Astapor was in darkness, it was midday in Oldtown.
She decided to take this opportunity to calculate how much distance each hour of time difference represented and, in turn, estimate the planet's diameter.
But just as she finished her calculations, she realized something awkward: Oldtown and Astapor aren't even at the same latitude—perhaps not even on the equator. The margin of error is too great.
"If only I could fully comprehend the magnetic coordinates in Drogon's perception. But unfortunately, that's even harder to grasp than magic."
As soon as that thought arose, Dany was struck by a thrilling idea:
"Magic… Can I teach Drogon magic?"
Without hesitation, she acted. For the first time, she entered Drogon's consciousness in her draconic state, carefully breaking down the symbols of meditation techniques and guiding him through the process step by step.
Though he did not understand the meaning behind it, Drogon obediently followed her instructions. However, he could not even form the most basic rune within his mindscape.
"How can you be this dumb?"
After over an hour of teaching, Drogon had yet to successfully form a single rune. Despite always having patience with her four dragons, Dany couldn't help but grow frustrated with her "top student."
Drogon conveyed a feeling of grievance: I did exactly what you said, but it just won't work!
"Could intelligence be a barrier to learning magic?" Dany mused.
There was no doubt that dragons in this world were exceptionally intelligent, but only in comparison to other lesser beasts. When measured against humans, their intelligence was akin to that of a child.
During its early days, under Dany's guidance, Blackfyre's intelligence improved rapidly, far surpassing that of his two brothers.
However, a year later, no matter how much spirit essence Dany infused into him, he hit a bottleneck. His intellectual growth slowed to a crawl, nearly coming to a standstill.
To inherit the Grand Sorcerer's legacy, many conditions had to be met—such as being born into the Fourteen Flames family and possessing dragon-spirit talent. Perhaps wisdom was another requirement.
Fools became knights, while the intelligent became grand mages—it made perfect sense.
Blackfyre was too dim-witted to become a "magic dragon."
"No, there's still another way!"
Dany had been preparing to give up on teaching Blackfyre magic. She ended her connection with the dragon spirit and stepped outside the tent to practice her riding skills when a sudden thought struck her.
Her dragon-spirit bond had two states: one where she entered the dragon's soul sea, transmitting her commands and receiving the dragon's sensory information; and another where the dragon entered her soul sea, standing guard against danger while also perceiving her senses.
"What if I let Blackfyre's mental energy enter my soul sea—even into my meditation vortex? What would happen?"
For some reason, when Dany entered Blackfyre's soul sea, she did not bring her meditation vortex with her. However, when Blackfyre entered her soul sea, the vortex was fully revealed to him without reservation.
After only a moment's hesitation, Dany allowed Blackfyre into the vortex.
In the mental space, her meditation runes manifested as a colossal, nine-colored vortex spanning heaven and earth, while Blackfyre's mental energy took the form of a massive black dragon over a hundred meters long.
The instant the black dragon approached the vortex's edge, Dany's mind trembled violently. The vortex spun at an accelerated speed, almost transforming into a pure white sphere of light—a glowing mass resembling a ball of white threads.
Starting from the wings that touched the vortex, Blackfyre's body was gradually shredded, dissolving into wisps of black smoke that merged into the white light sphere.
"Szgaaah—" His cry carried no pain, only confusion and panic as he struggled to pull away from the vortex.
But Dany, feeling an instinctive clarity, quickly reassured him, "Don't be afraid, Blackfyre. Our souls are fused—the light sphere won't harm you."
At her words, Blackfyre immediately calmed down. He stopped struggling and even moved closer to the light sphere.
Within moments, his entire body disappeared, and the white light sphere took on a faint gray hue.
But instead of panicking, Dany became excited—because she could still sense Blackfyre's presence within the gray sphere.
As her sorcery power gradually drained, the gray sphere regained its pure white brilliance. Slowly, the vortex's spinning slowed, and the white light reverted to the nine-colored vortex.
"Pop!"
Like a bubble bursting, the vortex suddenly expanded, then shrank, and another hazy, illusory nine-colored light sphere flew out from the main vortex.
Another nine-colored vortex!
"My gods, it actually worked! A perfect copy!" Dany was astonished.
The illusory smaller vortex was clearly formed from Blackfyre's mental energy, but its rune structure and operational patterns were identical to her own.
Without hesitation, she immediately altered the dragon-spirit bond and sent a sliver of her own mental energy, along with the phantom vortex, into Blackfyre's soul sea.
"Buzz, buzz, buzz—" The magma-red soul space trembled as countless crimson threads shot in from all directions, converging into the eye of the storm—the nine-colored vortex.
Visibly, the once-illusory vortex solidified and even began expanding. Eventually, it stretched across the magma-like soul space, linking heaven and earth, transforming the dark red surroundings into a vibrant, colorful expanse.
"It's enormous!" Dany was utterly shocked at the sight of the towering, inverted-mountain-like vortex before her.
This was Blackfyre's newfound magic!
Like Dany before she received the Grand Sorcerer's inheritance, Blackfyre possessed sorcery power, but it was scattered throughout his blood and soul sea, growing slowly and inefficiently.
By comparing her own sorcery levels before and after learning meditation techniques, she estimated that this meditation vortex alone would boost Blackfyre's power at least fivefold.
Moreover, the meditation technique actively absorbed high-energy mystical forces from the cosmos, further raising the magic level.
Blackfyre was evolving!
"Szgaaah—" Blackfyre also sensed the changes within himself. Overcome with excitement, he roared toward the sky.
"Szgaaah—" Sleeping atop the stone wall, Little Green was startled awake and let out a displeased roar in return.
"Hissss!" Blackfyre narrowed his eyes, his blood-red pupils flashing with a strange light.
"Boom!" He craned his neck and spewed two blazing red fire streams, each four to five meters long. With a startled cry, Little Green tumbled off the stone ledge, rolling halfway down the steps.
"Ah!" Jorah Mormont snapped out of his grief, jumped to his feet, and shouted, "No fighting! Absolutely no fighting!"
"Szgaaah—" Huddled in the corner, Little Gold blinked its golden eyes before shrinking even further into the shadows.
"Whoa! Blackfyre, I haven't seen you for a few days, and now your nose can breathe fire?" Jorah finally realized what had happened and cried out in astonishment.
(End of Chapter)
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