The mountain spring time air was more than pleasant to Nicoli, who was expecting the mountains to be a cold and harsh place. He had heard the horror stories of travels that attempted to cross a mountain range in the dead of winter, it was a foolish thing to do from all that he had learned. Luckily that was not the case. The breeze that wound through the mountain trails came from the south and was warm to the skin.

The path was far from treacherous with the light of the moon high overhead. Looking up at that moon Nicoli was not sure if that was a good thing or not, it was a Bloodmoon and it's light was tinted the appropriate color. As educated as Nicoli was he didn't know what caused the moon to become that deep red color. If he were to listen to the wives tales it would mean that the blood of innocent was spilled earlier that day and now the moon was weeping tears of blood for those killed.

After taking a moment to ponder the significance of the lunar event he pushed the thought out of his mind and focused on the task at hand. He was here for a purpose, a mission. The Veiled-Ones had been contracted to dispose of a man that was supposed to be here, a murderous man who's deeds Nicoli had heard of on more than one occasion. A man that fancied himself an assassin, but was what the Veiled-Ones called [I]Sahir'ka[/I], which meant Red Butcher.

Nicoli came upon the buildings before the thousand foot plateau, they were simple in their construction. But Nicoli had no time to admire their simplicity, instead he was drawn to a crumpled form only a few feet in from the slightly opened gate that lead to a spiraling stair case that circled around the plateau and lead to its top. The smell of death was staved off by the wind blowing at his back, but he knew once he approached that would not be the case and in his memory he knew what the smell would be, it was one he was accustomed with.

A few feet up the stairs he saw another form, another past that, and then another before the stairs turned out of his view. Keen dark blue eyes searched the immediate area and took in several more dark, unmoving forms. The monks had been butchered, every single one. His gaze went up higher and higher up the thousand feet to where he knew his target would be. He clicked his tongue against his teeth and grabbed the small baton like rod that was kept under his cloak in a holder against his back.

His eyes found a suitable spot and he pushed one of three buttons on the rod, a grappling hook came out of on end and a leather loop out the other, he hit it a second time and it shot out at a blinding speed, covering two hundred feet up in the matter of a couple seconds. He looped his hand through the leather piece and hit the button a third time, this time he was drawn straight up to a foothold where he could repeat the process.

What would have taken the better part of an hour took fifteen minutes to accomplish. Nicoli now stood on a tiled roof over looking a courtyard, there were a handful of bodies littered around, slumped over in unnatural positions. If it was anything like the corpses below the were near all torn apart, and all at least a half-day old if not longer. He leveled his rod again and repeated the earlier process. He swung down, coming to a roll in what had once been a beautifully sculpted sand garden but now was ruined by foot steps an stained the same crimson color as the moon that hung low above him.

He stepped onto the raised platform in the middle of the yard, eyes looking about once again at the carnage and destruction that was all about him, disgust was evident on his normally stoic face and two word came to mind, which he spoke at barely a whisper.

"Sloppy and Unprofessional." 

He slide his tool back into its holder on his back and looked straight north to the large square tower that dominated the area, the single digit reaching high to the sky. He knew his target would be somewhere inside there. Nicoli thought it likely another trail of bodies would lead him to exactly where. He pulled a necklace he wore out from under his shirt and held the red lens to his left eye, the lens that allowed him to see body heat, perhaps he could make out something in one of the windows or doorways.