About a month later, Arid had arrived at the Toran Festival.  It was in a more southern part of the kingdom, centered around the city of Antan.  Streets were decorated for the occasion, the main road littered with flowers and showing off the richness of the city.  The taverns all had their doors open at the time, spilling out the sound of the music into the street.  In this area it was mostly commonfolk who enjoyed the festival in this area, the nobility not even staying the night here.  No, the majority would be on the outskirts, setting up either luxurious campgrounds or in far more higher end inns.<br/><br/>Arid himself strode down the main road on his way to the palace, the place where the nobility would spend the majority of the time at the festival.  The day before he had changed his look to take the appearance of a nobleman, cutting his hair to a nice trim and making himself clean shaven.  He dressed in a regal attire that, while simple in the standards of nobles, was the most expensive clothing piece he ever wore.  Gods, he had to spend a small fortune just to get it made, how the hell did the nobility spend this much on all of their clothes?  His attire, a white and blue noble officer’s uniform with a green sash going from his right shoulder to left hip, felt a bit too tight as well and made the assassin long for his simple garments instead.  But no, he had to play a noble this time.<br/><br/>For this occasion, he would not be known as Arid.  Instead, he posed as the nobleman Nimol of the Valorian House.  The Valorians were a perfect house to assume for this role, having a large enough family but being distant enough to not have any of them attend besides himself.  Nimol was a real man, but had passed away not too long ago.  Nimol was just of high enough status yet unimportant enough that he was a perfect man to pose as, perfect for the assassin’s needs.<br/><br/>The main part of the festival was hosted by House Toran in the grand palace that displayed itself on a large hill on the outskirts of Antan.  The palace itself was a magnificent structure with two mansions symmetrical of each other and a massive garden separating them down the middle.  The entire palace was surrounded by a tall metal gate, likely ten feet tall at Arid’s assumption.  Dozens of the nobility streamed into the main gate, holding their retinue and bodyguards tight with them with some of the richer ones riding into carriages.  Arid had even heard that several of the royal members were attending<br/><br/>Arid himself had no retinue, not even a horse to ride in by.  Any others of nobility would notice this on his entrance, and to their eyes would lessen his value greatly.  Arid cared little for their game of politics, twisting and pulling strings to their advantages.  No, he was here to murder one of them, likely assisting one in the game itself.  Carver had said she , though Arid wasn’t sure what that exactly meant.<br/><br/>In addition to the main entrance, Arid knew of two side gates meant for lower class entrances and supposed with a structure like this there had to be at least one secret entrance, though he couldn’t tell for certain.  The assassin followed in behind with the other nobility, passing the gates and approaching one of the servants that was taking account of all who were entering.  “Nimol of House Valorian,” Arid said to the man, watching the servant go down the list and write his name on the ledger.<br/><br/>“House Toran welcomes you Lord Nimol,” the servant said, already looking away and towards the next one to approach.  Arid continued forward, gazing at the palace.<br/><br/>“Gods,” he muttered under his breath as he took in the sight.  He had heard of the palace before, yet had apparently underestimated it.  It really was as grand as the merchants said it was.  Arid shook his head and kept his eyes level at ahead.  He was not there to gawk at a building, he was there to kill.  The assassin entered inside the right mansion.  He needed to go around the place, make a count of guards, locate servant entrances, and most important of all find and kill Lady Eileen Rethwood.