Accessory Wars

Chapter 24-Felisa

            I thought Serenhe was cold but Bailey felt like a freezer in comparison. They didn't have as much snow but I would take the snow over the cold. Kami tried to explain the weather patterns to me but it all went over my head. While I wore several layers, Kami wore a simple trench coat and her usual tights. Just looking at her made me cold.

When the taxi arrived, we ran out of the train station over to it, suitcases in tow. Kami's had cute little rubber bats on hers. We stopped by the hotel, checked in and dropped off our bags in our room. Then we spent the rest of the day touring the town. The tournament was tomorrow and unlike Waterliep, I wasn't all that nervous. We practiced hard almost every day and I was getting better at close quarter combat. The smaller tournament size helped ease the stress as well.

Our trip in town ended rather short as I got too cold to continue. We grabbed an early dinner and headed back to the hotel to decompress for the evening. The next morning we woke early and took the bus out to the stadium. The building was big, but not as big as Waterliep. By my guess, it held less than half as many seats as Waterliep. The outside was a sandy beige brick with steel supports and several banners displaying local mascots from high school to college.

"The Bailey Roaring Ravens?" Kami read aloud as we walked towards the doors. "What sort of name is that? And the Bailey Mares?" She looked around at the crowd and frowned, shifting her parasol to her other shoulder. "This place needs a bit of lightening up."

"How so?" I asked.

"Everyone's on edge."

I looked around, vaguely noticing what Kami was seeing. There was the usual competitor stress mixed in with the crowd but I saw several uneasy looks from the spectators. They must have been thinking about the events that happened back in October.

"This will be a nice distraction for them so let's be sure to put on a good show," Kami said.

"Show?"

"Tournaments are all about the show! It's where you get to flaunt your power as an Elicit and show off your abilities as a high class Accessory. We are the performers, the arena our stage. We perform for the world! Or at least whoever is watching where stations are broadcasting. Now that we have the rhythm down, we need to ramp up our pizazz!"

Her words lost me so I just gave her a nod to pretend I understood.

We checked in at the front table away from ticket sales and found the line rather short. A positive for small town tournaments. We wandered around the concrete hallways looking at various sport memorabilia from times past. We also looked at the Bailey Cup, the top prize of the Bailey tournament, and all the names inscribed in the base. I checked the dates and saw this was the eighty fifth year they held their competition. It made Waterliep's tournament look young in comparison. Old photos hung around the cup showing epic battles in faded scenes. I examined them closely, studying the armor, weapons and the old arenas they used to fight in.

"Who knew Bailey had a such a rich history," I mused.

"It's quiet lovely," Kami agreed. We pried ourselves away and started making our way towards the check in table for our belongings. I wished I could have kept my coat. The hallways were freezing! But I handed it over with the rest of my belongings. We wandered around to pass time, as we had an hour before we needed to get to the queue room. An announcement sounded overhead, reminding the opening ceremony started in twenty minutes.

My eyes scanned the people milling about the hall. No one paid much attention to us. I felt like I could breathe easier like when I first moved to Serenhe. I turned to Kami to find her presence missing. Whirling around, I saw her standing farther back.