Explaing Aristotle's philosophy to two cubs

Doran watches as the royal family enters the room, like everyone in the room he bows briefly to the king before fixing his eyes on the members of House Targaryens.

At the head are the king with his queen. Aegon V is a man in his fifties, he had long, shoulder-length hair that shone like beaten gold with strands of silver woven together. He is a handsome and slim man, he wears black clothes with a red cape fastened with dragon-shaped brooches. The crown that he wears on his head belonged to his ancestor, Aegon III, it is a slender gold band, a simple unornamented circlet.

The queen, Betha Blackwood, known as Black Betha, has eyes and hair the color of night. She is a pretty woman but she could not be described as beautiful. Her eyes have a fierceness that Doran has seen only in the women of Dorne; all the women he has met since arriving at Kings Landing have a softer, more submissive gaze.

But he knows that that submissive look is in many cases just a curtain, an act, the ladies of the court are all manners and protocol on the surface but as treacherous and dangerous as a hungry beast deep down. The queen does not hide behind such pretensions, she is a woman of strong character and it shows.

Her reputation is well earned, his grandmother warned him to be honest but careful with his words in her presence.

Behind them walk Prince Jaehaerys and Princess Shaera. Both have changed clothes in the last few hours, their clothes are as expensive and elaborate as those of the richest lords in the room.

The next couple are their children, prince Aerys and princess Rhaella.

Aerys is a young boy of Kevan's age with the typical Valyrian appearance, he is quite cute and will grow up to be a handsome man. But Doran thinks his cousins, Jacaerys's grandsons who inherited the Valyrian appearance from their great grandmother Daenerys, are cuter. Especially the twins Guillan and Garibalt, who have a beauty more typical of the Veela than of a human. Those two are second only in terms of looks to their older sister Valena, who looks like an angel with her bright lilac eyes and her silvery hair; a real life Galadriel.

Rhaella is cuter than her brother, and much more shy apparently, she half hides behind her older brother, who seems somewhat annoyed by it but doesn't say anything.

The last couple to enter are Prince Duncan and his wife, Jenny.

The Dragonfly prince is more handsome than his brother, tall with broad shoulders; he is in good physical shape, as expected of one of the best knights of Westeros. His black hair is short and swept to the side. His clothes are black but his cape is purple as deep as his eyes, which are the same color as his father`s.

His wife is a pretty woman with brown hair decorated with many flowers. Her dress, a vivid green color, stands out among the black and red clothing of the other members of the royal family.

Doran heard that the 'peasant princess', as many nobles call her, is half crazy or a witch; The prince will not judge her based on rumors because he knows how cruel the rich and powerful can be.

"That's Jenny of Oldstones," he hears murmuring some of the nobles. "I have heard that she is a sorceress who seduced the prince with potions and dark spells."

"I heard that she had to kill two virgin girls to use their hearts in a ritual to make herself more beautiful and seduce prince Duncan."

Doran snorts at the nonsense.

While what they say might be possible in his old world, maybe even in this one (he still doesn't know what the locals' magic is capable of), he learned to read a person by looking at their eyes; a consequence of his many adventures and his experience in the mental arts. Jenny's eyes, green as grass, are full of curiosity and innocence: those are not the eyes of an assassin or a dark witch.

"Do you find the rumors amusing, Prince Doran?"

The prince turns to his new friends.

"Yes, Lord Tywin, it is ridiculous what they can think of to excuse the truth."

"The truth?" The brothers look at him curiously.

"Prince Duncan fell in love with Jenny, and to him that love is worth more than Seven Kingdoms."

They both look at him without understanding, they don't understand how someone could give up such an inheritance for love.

"But what about his duty as crown prince?"

Doran looks at Kevan, and thinks about how he could explain the concept of love to two children raised in a world where marital love is not always present in a marriage: here most marriages are of convenience.

"I don't know what went through Prince Duncan's head when he made that decision, maybe he thought his younger brother would be a better king than him or maybe he didn't care." Doran looks seriously at both Lannister children, who are watching him, soaking up every word. "What I do know is that one's duty should not dominate his life. One has to practice moderation in everything."

"Moderation?" Tywin's green eyes look at him intensely, Doran thinks that the boy has too intense a look for someone so young.

"When you think of moderation you think of self-control and reserve, things like not drinking too much wine so as not to cloud your mind," Tywin nods in agreement. "But it also has another meaning; a balance. Let me ask you: What is bravery?"

"Lack of fear." Kevan answers confidently. Doran shakes his head.

"He who is never afraid is not brave, he is reckless. There are things to be feared, let us take infamy as an example: he who fears it is honest and decent; he who does not fear it, shameless. To be brave does not mean, in fact, not to fear anything, but rather to fear what there is to fear, because, without a doubt, there are fearful things, and not fearing them does not imply an excess of bravery, but of recklessness, or indecency – often also of fear, foolishness–, when what should be feared has to do with our honor or with morals in general."

"What is bravery then?"

"It is being afraid but not letting that fear control you, it is facing an adversary that terrifies you, it is speaking in front of hundreds of people even though you are shy, it is facing what scares you and not backing down."

The children process the prince's words.

"I think I understand your words, your grace, but I still don't understand what that has to do with duty." While Kevan is still quite confused, Tywin seems to already understand what the Dornish prince is trying to tell them.

"The balance between extremes: at one extreme we have the reckless, who is not afraid, and at the other extreme we have the coward, who is too afraid. The middle ground between them is the brave, who fears but does not let fear control him." Kevan nods understanding thus far, "This applies to everything in life, we always have to exercise moderation. Even with duty. One who lets duty control him completely-"

The three continue to talk about moderation for a while, Doran never thought that he would spend half a party talking about the philosophy of Aristotle with children under the age of ten. After a while their parents call them, it's time to greet the king.

***

NOTE: Doran noticed that Tywin is trying to be tooooo serious even tho he is just a 9ys old kid, so he tries to subtitly explaint to him that being toooo extreme (aka tooo serious) is bad and that realxing and having a good time is okey as long as you dont overdo it.