"No!", snapped Viridis. Sentencing someone, even so cruel as the man who'd once owned Mira, was the last thing she wanted to do. She had no doubt Veldrin would have been able to carry the task out with ease. For all she knew he might have enjoyed it, having once been a slave himself. Perhaps that was why it felt right to work with the mercenary. He had known something similar to what Mira had just escaped.

She shook her head after collecting herself. "It might make our lives easier, but I for one wouldn't be able to live with myself if I knew somone's life had been taken on my order. Barring that, what would you suggest as our next move? " Viridis smiled a little. "I imagined hiring you as a bodyguard, and a teacher. I hoped, perhaps, that you could help Mira adapt to his new situation, since by your own words you've lived through something similar once." And Veldrin showed such strenght of character, such self assurance... If he could help Mira find even a fraction of that within himself, hiring him on would prove worth it.

She stood. "I'll fetch the gold." Mira's nod of acceptance made her feel much better about going upstairs to grab those tainted pieces of jewelry. She handed the bag to Veldrin without an ounce of regret and settled down in her seat again, waiting to see how well the mercerary would react to his payment. If he accepted at all.