Regrets were terrible things.
Salem looked out over the scorched, barren red rocks of her kingdom, and the pools of black blood from which Grimm would periodically emerge. It was a thankless task to monitor and catalog their emergence, but at least if she failed the records she'd kept might persuade history to view her more favorably.
Those who knew her name believed her to be a villain. The rest of the world had no idea she existed at all. But if Ozpin ever achieved his aim and unified the world under his sole power and brought the combined weight of four kingdoms to face her, she hoped someone enterprising or innocent enough would find what she'd kept here, and realize life was more complicated than the simple lens Ozpin indoctrinated his students with.
Ozpin had the chance to unite the kingdoms once before, but that was a past life; a time when he was a smaller, more honest soul. Time warped his perspective and that regret was always at the forefront of his mind. He played the fool for an audience, but no matter his sentiments and protestations, his plans were to gradually bring the kingdoms together, where he would steward them from behind the scenes. Ozpin always intended to be the man behind the curtain, where he'd have no official title or vestments, but nonetheless be de facto ruler of the world, gripping it in an invisible hand. He would eventually amend his mistake of not claiming ownership of the world when he'd been offered the crown, and for an immortal man, time was hardly an obstacle.
But time was not on Salem's side, now that Ozpin had made a terrifying breakthrough.
Salem was shunned for her connection to the Grimm, because they were soulless constructs born of negative energy who lashed out at the inhabitants of this remnant. What few realized -and Ozpin ensured that only a select few ever could- was that Salem's limited control over them, ruling them through fear of her power, was the only reason Mistral (and indeed, all of Anima) had not already fallen under their control. If Salem relaxed her grip, the Grimm would overtake the continent. Eventually, inevitably, they'd overtake this remnant were it not for her. She had to manage the horde and carefully indulge them with limited skirmishes and the occasional mass attack, and was left powerless to move from her keep and oppose Ozpin more directly.
But now she had to move, because Ozpin was about to raise the stakes. With the help of his allies in Atlas, he'd finally found a way to gain powers that he was never meant to wield, and force them under his thumb.
In Atlas, a gifted scientist had found a way to make a machine generate Aura of its own. With a bit of fine tuning from Ozpin and other unscrupulous men, they used the same technology to create a terrible chamber, that would steal the Aura of a living body and instill it in a new host.
At once Salem realized what Ozpin intended. To steal the power of the Maidens; the only powers he himself could never attain. Even if he couldn't use those powers himself, he could steal the Aura and place it inside his little toy soldiers, and have it at his beck and call regardless.
And Ozpin had one relic in his possession. Once the kingdoms were united under his control, it wouldn't matter how many Grimm Salem had or how many realized what a power mad despot he truly was... he would smash through all opposition and rule the world from the shadows.
So, Salem set in motion a terrible task... a way to even the playing field and delay Ozpin's scheme from coming to fruition.
The soulless Grimm could be commanded, if only for simple tasks. There was no task simpler than to do as they wished and hunt for Aura.
Salem found a species small enough to share a human host, to be concealed within long enough and then used to store another source of Aura and transfer it between two different places. It wasn't as elegant as Ozpin's technological marvel, but it would complete the task as effectively.
Salem knew that good people would not agree to steal the powers of others; at least not without extraordinary circumstances. And in her limited time frame, she'd settle for someone cruel and ambitious to steal the power before Ozpin could, if only to keep him from completing his goal.
Salem chose a girl with a powerful Semblance to be her agent, even though it meant giving away incredible power to someone wholly unworthy of it and likely to eventually betray Salem in pursuit of her own goals. It was a necessary evil.
It was a terrible cruelty, but the alternative was to simply watch as she slowly surrendered to Ozpin as he finally atoned for his old mistake and at last seized power.
So, reluctantly, Salem released Cinder Fall from her chain and sent her to kill an innocent girl. For the greater good.
Others joined with her, to oppose Ozpin. They were motivated by their own reasons; none of them shared her goal. Another set of fragile alliances to maintain, another burden to bear.
Salem would not live with regrets. Not when she could do something to change the terrible destiny this remnant slowly crawled towards.
She turned her attention to further divide Ozpin from his goals, and set up plans to speak to the headmaster of Haven Academy, so she could enlighten him to the danger that lay ahead, and keep another of the relics out of Ozpin's hands.