The rose was delivered as soon as possible and the contract of Erick Vaughn Lastraad had been sealed. Fifteen hundred gold was indeed a high price to pay for the services of a notorious cutthroat, but there were indeed factors, disciplines of the woman that stood above the common rabble of hired muscular thugs and contracted mercenaries to do such dirty, and often bloody work, and that was precision, finesse, and the utmost importance placed upon secrecy and the shadows. Never once minding the cost of Alena's services however, Lastraad was quite pleased upon hearing the woman's account of how she easily dispatched that loathsome cad Balford to the darkness and horror of Oblivion with just a few simple drops of Mirkwood Serpent venom, a most lethal of concoctions the Earth Mother definitely brewed within the nefarious wretches of the forest, oh how those slender black and yellow spotted snakes had served the Coven so greatly over the years, but enough rambling. The payment was collected and bloodshed was put forth. Now that Balford was out of the picture, Lastraad could continue living his life....until one day if Alena were to collect his.

Bidding farewell to the man, the assassin leaped from the third floor balcony of his prestigious abode in the Noble Quarter and took to her accustomed pathways again, vaulting from rooftop to rooftop in the pale light of the moon cascading down upon her.