The woman would be among the first.
He had known this the moment he handed her the coin pouch. The Church didn't lose paladins without consequence, and anyone connected to the scene would be questioned. She had been there. She had seen. And in a city like this, being present was the same as being guilty.
He should have killed her in the alley.
The thought came without emotion, clinical and clear. It would have been cleaner. Safer. One more body among thousands, absorbed into Adaranthe's daily count without investigation or consequence. She would have died quickly, painlessly, and the Church would have had nothing to leverage.
Instead, he had given her money and let her run.
A mistake born from something he didn't have a name for. Not mercy. Mercy implied choice, deliberation, values he no longer claimed.
