Juliet made it through the end of the semester by the skin of her teeth. She had so many final papers and exams to grade it was a miracle she made it through with her sanity intact. But before she knew it, the day had arrived for them to begin their journey to the capital.
Her bags were packed, they had arranged to travel to the capital with a merchant caravan, and it was time to say goodbye to the academy. She hadn't become attached to the place or anything but it was hard leaving not knowing if she would ever see it again. If they succeeded, she might be able to go home. But if they failed, she wouldn't be coming back because she would be dead.
She desperately pushed that morbid thought out of her head as she loaded her luggage onto a cart. She and Alec had each paid for half of the group's travel fare. It didn't come cheap but they had been saving for months and she made much more as a professor than she had as a laundress.
