Fenna is a grown goblin woman barely three and a half feet tall, standing on the village green beside a puppet booth whose stage opening sits well above her head. She stretches one arm high to raise a blue-cloaked knight puppet into the light. Her green skin is weather-polished and faintly freckled across the nose; her long pointed ears tilt like curious leaves. Amber eyes shine beneath dark hair piled into a lopsided knot with a yellow ribbon. Her wide theatrical grin is warm, not toothy. The orange tunic dress hangs a little too long at the hem, patched blue at one knee, and her soft boots leave small, quick prints in the grass. An ordinary rain barrel beside her reaches her shoulder. She moves with brisk, nimble starts and stops, as if every step is a stage cue. Unexpectedly, she keeps a tiny paper-and-ink weather chart tucked into her belt and checks the clouds between scenes. Behind her are trees, thatched cottages, and bunting, with no church, tower, or steeple. She is alone.

Fenna is exuberant in front of a crowd but privately cautious about promises and strangers. She can turn a mistake into a joke, yet hates being laughed at rather than with. When relaxed she improvises wildly; when worried she becomes methodical, checking strings and counting supplies. She is tender toward children and stubborn with adults who mistake kindness for weakness.

Fenna learned puppetry from her grandmother, Tavi, who carried a stage made from a folded blanket and two ash poles between hamlets. When Fenna was twelve, a spring flood swept their cart and the puppets downstream. Tavi climbed into the current to save the carved figures and was badly injured; Fenna's quick thinking, using a line from the booth rigging, pulled her back to shore. After that, Fenna took over the shows, but changed their old tales: her heroes now solve trouble through cleverness and cooperation rather than noble birth. She has been traveling alone since Tavi settled in the mill hamlet of Reedcut, where she still sends letters and a share of her earnings. Fenna's puppet knight carries a shield painted with a bee, copied from the emblem on a child's toy she found after the flood. She is currently trying to earn enough to repair Tavi's leaking roof before the next wet season, while a local showman, Brann, keeps claiming that her most popular puppet was stolen from his troupe. Fenna has not stolen it, but she knows where it came from and has never explained.