( Arianne )
The sun rose through the windows of Arianne's chambers, lightly waking her up as the light pierced through her eyelids.
She stood up from the bed to see a sleeping figure next to her and smiled slightly.
It wasn't hard to convince the Yronwood boy to sleep with her, and although he hadn't been talking that much, she was sure that given a few more nights, she would have him wrapped along her fingers, and a consequential ally of Quentyn would be taken away.
Small steps were what it took. She knew her way around men and knew how to make them do her bidding.
She'd done it before after all.
As Tyene said, she could probably convince a kingsguard to renounce his vows.
Wouldn't it be fun to try? She thought as she moved towards her washing room, to get dressed and put some proper jewellery on.
As much as she hated the very notion of a tourney in her brother's honor, she was still the heir to Dorne and such events were unmissable. As such, she had to look radiant before the people and court of Dorne.
But most of all, she needed to bring allies back into her fold. The Jordaynes, Tolands, Fowlers and Daynes all had moved to Quentyn's side, and it would be her mission to convince them that Quentyn is not a good choice for Dorne.
And what better way to do that than have him publicly shamed and humiliated by Daemon? They would see that her brother does not know how to fight, and no true dornishman at all.
Then, she would sweep in and bring every single house back into the palm of her hand, and with the inadvertent help of the Yronwood boy, even secure Quentyn's most loyal allies.
She smirked at the thought.
Suddenly, she heard a few knocks at the door.
She looked towards the bed, where Cletus Yronwood was still sleeping, and wondered who in all seven hells this could be.
Mayhaps the tourney had been pushed forward?
She made her way to the door, making sure she was appropriately dressed, but the sight that greeted her there made her wince.
"Hello, Ari." Her brother greeted her.
Quentyn had some of his hair dishevelled and looked more joyful than usual. He wore some of his tourney garments, but the most unusual thing were the bandages around his wrists and hands.
"Quentyn." She acknowledged. "Burnt your hands this morning?"
"That?" he pointed to the aforementioned bandages. "Oh no, that's for the tourney. I just wanted to know if you could wake up Cletus."
"What?"
"Come on, sister." He sighed. "I know he's there, and the tourney is starting this afternoon. Cletus needs to prepare for it as well and I need…"
*SLAM*
She closed the door in his face, before he could pronounce another word.
She waited a few moments, but nothing happened, not even another set of knocks at the door.
Good. She needed every advantage she could get, and the fact that Cletus was still sound asleep would also help her in the long run. The more allies of Quentyn she could present as weak, the better.
She moved to the washroom again, but a few moments later, the door flew open.
I really need to lock that damn door
Turning around angrily, she saw her brother holding a bucket with a huge grin on his face.
There was no time to react.
In an instant, he was at the bed, right over the Yronwood boy. Her brother took the bucket, and emptied it above the unsuspecting Yronwood.
Water came crashing down, completely wetting her sheets, and the poor boy along with it.
"What the…" Cletus suddenly woke, looking around, before calming down and looking at her, then at Quentyn, holding the empty bucket. "Oh."
"Come on, Cletus." Quentyn said. "The tourney starts this afternoon, and you still have much to do to prepare. Get dressed, Gulian, Arch and Gerris are waiting."
"Ah, yes, of course." Cletus acknowledged, drenched in water from head to toe. "I'll dry up and dress. Sorry about…"
"Don't mention it. We'll talk later." Quentyn replied. "I'll be waiting outside."
With that, her brother was gone, leaving her dumbfounded.
The rest of the morning came and went without much issue, though.
The Yronwood boy didn't say a single word, and just left quietly, stopping her from making any more moves. A small setback, but nothing too major.
As the morning went on, she had fully prepared herself for the tourney, had given Daemon the orange band, representing house Martell, which would indicate he had her favor for this tourney, and finally had joined Tyene.
Sylva and Elia on one of Sunspear's balconies, looking over the courtyard where everyone was preparing.
The tourney would take place in the outer walls, close to the city, yet inside the fortress of Sunspear.
This was made so that the smallfolk could also take part in the festivities but with a certain number of guards positioned around the area, and would make for a much better place for the tourney to occur than the small, crowded courtyard of the inner castle.
As horses, men, women and children paced around Sunspear's courtyard, rushing to get to the tourney grounds, she turned to her companions.
"How have your mornings been?" she asked.
"Uneventful." Sylva Santagar replied. "Thankfully I won't participate in the fighting."
"Neither will I." Elia grumbled. "Father didn't allow it."
"You're still too young." Arianne replied. "You might know your way around a spear but you will not stand long enough against the fighters down there."
"But Obara did her first tourney at two-and-ten!"
"Obara trained with a spear since she was six." A voice made itself heard on the balcony.
Arianne turned around, seeing her cousin Nymeria join their small party, fixing her braid as she walked forwards.
"You're yet to get enough experience to participate in a tourney, lady lance." She continued, patting her sister's head.
Elia grumbled in a corner, as Arianne smiled.
"One day you'll become a great jouster and fighter." She tried comforting her. "I believe it."
Elia stopped grumbling and shared a small smile, nodding.
"Speaking of which, are you fighting today, then, Nym?" Tyene asked.
The half-volantene nodded.
"Aye." She pointed to her spear. "I've trained enough, hopefully this time I can kick Obara to the ground."
"Like the first eleven times?" Arianne crossed her hands and smirked.
"Well, miracles can happen, especially today." Sylva added. "It seems your brother had someone warming his bed tonight."
Arianne's heart stopped.
"How do you know?" she quickly asked.
"My sister Gwen saw him leave with a woman, who dragged him into her rooms." Sylva shrugged. "She didn't see who it was, but she recognized the prince."
"Does this really matter?" Nymeria asked. "Your brother wants his share of the fun, let him be."
"Of course, it matters!" Arianne growled. "It means my brother now has a girl that fancies herself princess of Dorne! She no doubt bedded him to try and get his favor, green as he is, he wouldn't resist a woman, and she would try and weasel his way further into Sunspear's court, and take my rightful place as princess of Dorne!"
She held her breath for a moment before continuing her rant.
"I want to know who she is. Perhaps a girl from a lesser house or even a bastard." Arianne clutched her fists, looking towards her friends.
"I want to know what whore decided to wrap her fingers around my brother and try and humiliate me. I want to see that bitch begging for forgiveness when I take what is mine, and I want to see that little b…"
*SLAP*
Arianne felt a pain jolt through her cheek as she winced in pain.
As she slowly looked up, she saw Nymeria's palm slowly drop back down. Her cousin opened her mouth, but decided not to say a word and just left.
Arianne just stood there, clutching her cheek, just as dumbfounded as her friends.
"What just happened?" she asked.
Tyene just pointed to the courtyard.
"That's what happened."
Arianne looked on as Nymeria darted towards her brother and whispered something in his ear. Quentyn looked confused and looked up directly at her. She couldn't see what words her brother spoke then, but it wouldn't have mattered.
Quentyn turned back towards her cousin, and muttered something in her ear. Nymeria then grinned and gave him an orange-coloured armband, whilst Quentyn did the same.
Her brother gave her one more look, wrapped the band around his right arm, clutched it for an instant, and went on his way.
Arianne looked on stunned as it was Nymeria's turn to look at her. Instead of saying anything, her cousin just shook her head and left as well.
Tyene and Elia laughed behind her, as Sylva tried to control herself as well. She continued to stand there dumbfounded for a moment, before shrugging it off.
This day wasn't going her way for now, but it soon would all turn around.
...
( Gerris )
The crowd roared and cheered, deafening Gerris.
He could have enjoyed such a moment if he wasn't down on the ground with a sword pointed right at his heart.
"Do you yield?" came a voice above him.
"I do." He answered.
"Prince Quentyn Martell advances." The cried announced, eliciting another roar from the crowd. "Ser Gerris Drinkwater is eliminated."
Quentyn sheathed his sword and gave him a hand, which he eagerly took.
His friend brought him to his feet and cleared up the dust and sand on his tunic and armor.
"You didn't fight as hard as you usually do, what happened?" Quentyn asked, as they cleared the field for the next contenders, heading towards Gerris' tent, one amongst the many displayed on the outer walls.
"I don't know." Gerris answered truthfully. "Since this morning, I haven't been feeling well. I've had the worst headache, and my intestines feel like they are burning up.
The only time my head or my stomach isn't hurting is when I'm lying down."
"Did you eat something rotten?" Quentyn inquired.
"No, I might have had too much wine." He replied as they entered his tent. He then pointed to a pouch on the small table in the middle.
Quentyn approached it and brought his nose to the container.
"Did you pour yourself a glass?" he asked.
"No, I drank it straight from the pouch." Gerris replied, sitting down on the makeshift bed. "Much better."
Quentyn looked around for a glass, and, finding none, poured the liquid in the pouch onto the ground.
To Gerris' horror, the usual red colour of the dornish wine was replaced with a greenish mixture.
"Who gave you this?" Quentyn asked.
"A serving boy." Gerris replied. "He told me every contestant got a free wine pouch."
"Right." Quentyn sighed. "And you didn't ask any questions?"
"Well, a lot of folks were drinking from pouches when I came here so I didn't worry otherwise." Gerris replied.
"We need Gulian to examine this. And quick." Quentyn continued. "There's a good chance you might have been poisoned and…"
"Quentyn." A girl barged into the room. "One of your friends told me I could find you here."
Quentyn turned around and looked as if surprised to see the girl there.
"Nym, what's wrong?" he asked. "Did Arianne act up again?"
"No, you're just going up against Daemon and…" she looked at the wine pouch, at Gerris, and back at Quentyn. "What's this?"
"Gerris drank from that pouch." Quentyn replied. "Poor bloke now has headaches and stomach pains after drinking only three sips from that. We've been trying to find what it is."
Nym moved forwards and looked at the liquid on the pouch and sniffed the contents of the pouch. She then carefully dropped some more of the liquid on the table and winced.
"Your friend was poisoned." She said simply. "Although he's lucky to only have stomach pains. He just needs to purge and he will be fine."
"Purge?" Gerris asked.
"Throw up." Quentyn replied. "Sorry, Gerris, this is my cousin, Nymeria, you met her before, right?"
"Yes, I have." Gerris acknowledged as he struggled to get up from the bed.
"Don't stand up, blonde boy." Nymeria warned. "You'll only increase the pain."
Nymeria then walked to Quentyn, with a worried look on her face.
"What has he been poisoned with?" the prince quickly asked.
"I'm not completely sure, maybe your Qorgyle friend can help." She replied.
"But a mixture of Viper's fangs and some kind of Hellholt wax. Maybe another. These poisons aren't fatal on their own but together they can bring nasty results.
If he had drank the whole thing…well your friend wouldn't have been able to fight since he'd be rotting in the sun."
Quentyn gulped.
"We need to find that serving boy." Quentyn turned to Gerris. "I'll ask Cletus and his squire to have a look."
Gerris nodded and pushed himself back onto the bed, clutching his stomach. While fighting the pain, he overheard the two Martells talking as they exited the tent.
"Why did you come?" Quentyn had asked.
"To warn you." She'd replied. "Daemon has that orange armband you and I wear, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Arianne having given him her favor."
"As expected."
"You don't understand, I fear that she might have asked him to harm you."
"Daemon wouldn't dare."
"He would for her." She took a deep breath. "And the poisoning of your friend gives me reason to doubt her intentions. Take care of yourself, cousin."
"I will." Quentyn said. "But why tell me this?"
"You said it yourself." Nymeria replied. "We're family. We look out for each other. And I also have a score to settle, as I said before. Good luck, Quent."
Quentyn nodded and left with her, out of earshot, leaving Gerris to wonder not only what the hell just happened, but where he could find some place quiet to vomit this wine out and forget about all of this nonsense.