Fenna listened to the explanation of the gold contract. It sounded doable, especially if they could take a moment to rest and maybe practise a little bit. Fighting with a spear had been a new experience and she had done so almost instinctively, but practising would definitely improve her skill. She hadn't even used the longbow that had been in her... stone box yet. She refused to call it what it looked like most – a coffin implied she died and she had no recollection of that. As far as she knew, she was just transported here, somehow.

When James suggested waiting until the next day to go to the Academy, she felt the weight of the cube pressing down on her. Would she have to keep it with her all night, hoping the water ninja wouldn’t try and take it from her? Lilliana had almost died carrying the cube around. She shared a look of concern with MacKensie and it was a relief to see her fellow ranger wasn’t thrilled about it either.

She went down with Mackensie to hear what James had to say, nodding at Joji after he said he would be back soon, and once everyone was on the same page, she headed out to the academy.

The walk up the Citadel Mountain was hard – it had been a long day and she felt her body protest against even more physical activity, but if she wanted to have any rest that night she needed to get rid of the cube. Let the people of the Academy examine it, guard it, eat it for all she cared. She couldn’t help herself glance around for any signs of the ninja while walking towards the Academy.

The impressive building made Fenna pause and take in the details. The grand arch that served as entrance had many coloured lanterns, fuelled by… magic, if she had to guess. It looked more like electrical lights as they had back home instead of a flame, and seeing there was no electricity here, they had to be fueled by magic somehow. 

She stepped onto a hexagon-shaped courtyard surrounded by buildings that reminded her of Gothic or Baroque architecture; a large fountain in the middle drew her attention - the white basin was decorated with what looked to be sea creatures. The statue of a woman who undoubtedly had meant something to this country - or this academy at the very least - was even more impressive with her eyes on the entrance as if she watched over this place. The people meandering or hasting across the courtyard gave them barely any attention. A small group was philosophizing about life, someone was reading on a bench, a young woman ran across with her arms full of books, and two swordfighters were examining a sword one of them had purchased.

“Excuse me,” she said to a man wearing robes – he seemed like the kind of person to work here. “We are looking for someone called Clarissa Shields, we were sent by Lucinda Bottrill from the Adventures Guild. We have a letter.” She gestured to Adam, who had taken the letter as per James’s suggestion, or instruction. “Could you please tell us where we can find her?”

The man was kind enough to send them to the main building at the top of the courtyard, and she looked at her companions before thanking the man and heading in that direction. Once inside the main building, she noticed a group of four talking to each other, they seemed busy with something, but maybe they could help them further. 

“Excuse me,” Fenna said once again. “We are looking for someone called Clarissa Shields, we were sent by Lucinda Bottrill from the Adventures Guild. We have a letter for her and a mysterious cube that needs to be investigated, of which we can only explain how it got into our possession.”