My alarm went off when it was still dark out. The late December sunrise trickled lazily through the blinds as Thomas and I prepared for the day ahead. This was the least ceremonious day of the tournament – round one started brutally early – but tomorrow's battles would start later in the morning.

"The dance isn't til the third night," I told Thomas, who had rented formal clothing the night before.

Thomas straightened his tie in the closet mirror. "Ha ha. My dressing up is the same as your wearing that necklace."

"Not true," I said, hand drifting to the heart pendant on the necklace Megan gave me. "Mine is for luck. Yours is to make a good impression when you meet your prom date's parents."

At 7:10 we headed to the main arena, where round one lineups would be posted at 7:30. Vendors were already setting up their stands between arenas, their breath forming dense clouds in the cold. Thomas and I checked in and joined the crowd waiting around the concourse screens.

"How are you feeling?" Thomas asked me.

I shrugged. "As ready as I can be."

"That's not what I meant, but I'm glad anyways."

Dawn arrived at 7:20; Lucas rolled in at 7:29, which gave me a solid 24 minutes of worrying whether he'd be on time. (Evelyn, the math doesn't line up! Yeah that's because I skipped backward at one point and got a bonus five minutes of nerves.) At 7:30, music swelled from speakers overhead, and a cheer rose from the front of the sleepy crowd of trainers and spread outward. The tournament had begun.

The Lake Valor Tournament is the Forget Everything You Thought You Knew of tournaments. As the fall season's final tournament, it's an huge spectacle sponsored by the Sinnoh League (as opposed to the Resort Tournament, sponsored by the rich people at the Lake Valor Resort). Anyone who's participated in a tournament in the last six months is welcome to join. The tournament bracket is vaguely elimination based. And that's about where the consistencies with other tournaments end. It's the chaotic counterpart to the lawful late spring Sinnoh League Tournament.

Matchups don't feed naturally into each other, but are randomized for most of the tournament. The battle format changes from round to round – you could have a 4-on-4 double battle with substitutions allowed at any time in round one, and then a 3-on-3 battle with preemptively locked-in teams in round two. There are no badge divisions. Terrain is randomized between battles. The rounds are so chaotic, you can easily forget it's a well-organized event by a major organization.

Apart from the battles themselves, the Valor Tournament is a full-on solstice festival, attracting tourists from across the region to the festivities and spectacles. Most terrifyingly of all, the battles are broadcast across the region. Mainly the top seeds are featured over the first few days, although parts of other battles often make it into highlight reels.

The television intro sequence played on the screens above us, followed by an opening speech by Marian, the famous contest commentator. She said some things about the tournament, but Dawn had whispered something to Lucas that made him smile and I lost track of anything else.

"Without further ado, here are our first round lineups!"

Animated confetti zoomed around the screen, fluttering closer until you could see the faces on each piece, settling into pairs. Names materialized beneath our photos. I found Lucas and Dawn, as well as some faces I recognized from past tournaments. The demi-randomization seemed to consider badge count this round, giving trainers with higher counts an immediate advantage.

I found my assignment: Eduardo Aguila, an 8:20 match in one of the three peripheral arenas. "I can't find mine," Thomas said, frowning. I pointed to the screen on the very end, which contained unmatched faces beneath the words "First Round Bye."

"Congrats, you've already made it to round two," I said.

"But I'm only a six badge trainer."

"Eleven, if you count Johto. Plus you reached the semifinals in Celestic. You're right up there with the seven- and eight-badge trainers."

"But…"

"Accept it, Thomas," I said with exaggerated mournfulness. "You're a better trainer than you think you are."

He shook his head with a smile. "There are a lot of byes this round," he pointed out. "I must have been on the borderline."

"Whatever."

Trainers began to disperse. Battles would begin at eight and continue almost continuously throughout the day, switching to round two at three in the afternoon. Dawn and Lucas were both late morning, one right after the other.

"Shall we get going?" Thomas said, gesturing toward the door.

"You bet."

"This will be a two-on-two single battle between Evelyn Meyers of Twinleaf Town and Eduardo Aguila of Veilstone City. No substitutions are allowed; the battle will conclude when one side's pokemon are unable to continue. Battlers, are you ready?"

"Ready."

"Yep!" I saw a thumbs-up through the trees. The arena had selected a wooded terrain for our battle. The instant I saw trees, I knew who to send out.

"Battle, begin!"

"Faith, it's yours!"

"Go, Shiftry!"

I narrowed my eyes. Type advantage. "Faith, melt into the trees. Prank her, like I said yesterday."

"Sunny day!"

Faith disappeared; Shiftry sent a eyeball-searing ball of light into the air over the treetops. "Don't get hit by a solarbeam," I added.

Suddenly, debris was flying, and I'd missed the explosion. I covered my face, coughing from the dust. "Is Faith still there?"

"Oui," Def confirmed. "Elle est in a tree. Shiftry has been confused."

"Hey, good job Faith!" I said as the dust began to settle. Several trees were on fire (this is why woodland terrain is so rare).

Eduardo Aguila was futilely yelling directions at his shiftry. The shiftry blasted another solarbeam in a wild direction, and then at the branches above him, and then at another tree with an odd shadow across its trunk.

Faith shot out of the tree, displaced by the solarbeam. She tumbled toward the edge of the arena and rolled to a stop just short of the wall.

"Gengar is unable to battle!"

"Faith, return," I said. "Trust, you're up. The branches above her are weak."

Another skip – the trees were whole again, the arena sunny but peaceful.

"Def, status?"

"Faith put the shiftry to sleep."

"Nice! Let's chip away at her stamina. Faith, use–"

Another skip – I think forward this time? The sunny day had faded, as had the hypnosis. Shiftry was chasing Faith around with a feint attack, lunging and failing each time Faith dodged into the ground or a tree or into the air. She was fully giggling. Frustration was evident on the shiftry's face.

And then it was quiet, suddenly, after another jump. "Gengar is unable to battle," the ref said again. I squinted through the undergrowth and found a purple mass between the trees.

"Faith, return." I paused. "Def?"

"Qu'est ce que c'est?"

"Shiftry's getting mad. You're up."

The last thing I remember was sending Def out onto the battlefield. Immediately after that–

"Skarmory is unable to battle! The match goes to Evelyn Meyers of Twinleaf Town!"

Def walked out of the trees, smiling. "Congrats," I said, still on-edge in case time jumped again.

"Merci beaucoup. Congratulations to you too."

"Thanks." I might have missed half of it, but I guess we'd just won our first round battle.

After going over to shake hands with Eduardo Aguila – who was very buff and also very nice – I left through the tunnel on my side. The next trainer passed by me in the tunnel; battles were quick and back to back these first few days.

Looker was waiting in the green room. "Hello. How have you been?" he asked me. His tone was extra formal – our last argument was hovering over us as we talked.

"Hey. Pretty good, just won," I replied. "You?"

"Well, I've been all over Sinnoh, and I haven't managed to find the Orbs," he said.

"Weird… Where could Galactic have stored them?"

"It could be they're moving perpetually around Sinnoh," Looker suggested. "But I suspect they've been stored off-region, where the Key can't go."

"How would they know it can't leave Sinnoh?"

"They might not," he pointed out. "Perhaps they're just trying to hide the Orbs somewhere harder to find."

"I guess," I said glumly. "So… now what? It's just a dead end?"

"Looks like it," Looker said seriously. "I just dropped the Key off with… you know," he muttered, shrugging.

I nodded. Cynthia. He didn't need to risk being overheard, even if no one was in the room right now.

"So what now, then?" I asked him, glancing at the door.

"Well, in addition to the Orbs, there's–"

He suddenly fell quiet. I looked back at him to find him watching me patiently.

"Ah, you're back," he said.

"Sorry," I sighed. "It's been happening more frequently again."

"I thought you found an anchor?"

"I thought so too."

"Have you looked into alternatives?" Looker asked. "You don't have to stick to just the one solution."

"I haven't yet. It's been a long week. I've been coming to terms with a lot of things." The last thing I needed right now was to fall back into a pit of self-pity over my detachment from time.

"Okay, well… keep me posted. I can look into anchors as well."

"It's okay," I said. "I'll figure it out. You have enough to worry about."

"At any rate, I was saying that there are other branches of their plot to tackle, if the Orbs are a dead end," he said in a hushed voice. "I've hidden cameras at the various ruins in case they try to continue scanning Mount Coronet. If we knew where the Galactic Bomb or Red Chain were being manufactured, we could do something about those."

I nodded. It really didn't sound like we had a lot going for us. In fact, we were farther behind than I'd thought.

Looker sighed. "Right, well, that's all for now. Best of skill for the tournament."

"Thanks."

"Okay, so Lucas's battle is back here in the Diamond Arena at 10:40, followed by Dawn's at 11 in the Pearl Arena, so we might have to sprint if we want to catch both of them." I was staring at the itinerary while walking, so Thomas pulled me out of the way of a zooming child. "Then round two will start at three, but lineups go out at 2:30–"

"Evelyn."

"Hm?" I looked up.

"Let's enjoy the festival."

I blinked. "What? We should… the tournament…"

"We're not battling right now."

"Sure, but… We should be watching other battles to pick up on strategies, or else resting before round two."

"The festival counts as resting. We don't need to miss out on the fun just because we're also competing."

"But Galactic… and I haven't found an anchor… We're so behind, and we can't stop getting stronger, or they'll succeed and nothing will matter anyways…"

Thomas studied me. Facing me, he put his hands on my shoulders. (Shoulders meant he couldn't feel the sudden surge in my heart rate, although if I was blushing he could probably see that.)

"Evelyn," he said. "Relax. You've been super worried since coming out of the battle. We're here at a big end-of-season celebration, and if we're needed for something Galactic, Looker will come get us, and both of us made it past the first round, and there's a booth over there where you can learn to make poffins. I know you're carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders, but you can put it down for a little. Your only responsibility right now is to take a break and be a regular trainer."

I took a deep breath. He was probably right. There was a limit to what we could accomplish in the few hours before round two. "Okay. I'll try."

He smiled and let go of my shoulders, and we joined the festival.

Eduardo Aguila is named for my friend who read a little under half of Chance several years ago but never finished :') (which is why it's less than half a battle)

Also Porter Robinson's new single Mirror is a bop as well as a mood.

OH also I gotta highly recommend The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern it's so good holy frickin cowsicles

K see you next round bye