Jaune was enjoying dinner with most of the family/ Lavender's eggs in red wine sauce starter had been excellent. The chopped bacon and the herbs had given the sauce an extra richness which Jaune appreciated. He had used the bread to soak up the sauce and delay the interrogation. Eventually he had finished, and dad indicated that there would be thirty minutes before he needed to go into the kitchen again.

Jessica then asked, "How did you end up on a team with three other people from Mistral?"

"Mostly by accident. You remember how you used to think that the Beacon students were kidding when they said teams were chosen randomly and the choice of team leaders was equally mysterious."

They nodded.

"If anything, they were soft-pedalling the truth. The morning after we arrived, they took us to cliff, told us that not only our partner but also the teams will be chosen that day, that we would be catapulted into a Grimm infested forest to test our landing strategies, pair up with the first person we make eye contact with, fight our way through the forest to a temple where each pair picks up a so-called relic. Immediately after telling us this, we were catapulted as promised. We were not told that we would be put into a team with the pair who picked up the same relic and the team leader chosen based on what happened during the test. By the way the headmaster also told us that the staff would not intervene if we got into trouble so we could die and I for one took him at his word."

"Holy goliath droppings." said Jessica. "Surely the Vale students try to game the system."

"They try, but they change the relics each year and the catapults have differing strengths. Cardin and Dove suspect that they assign the launching pads to the Vale students to make it more difficult for them to arrange to meet up with their best buddy. They ended up on the same team, but Cardin waited twenty minutes for Dove before choosing their relic at the same time. Ren and Nora are the only pair I know of who succeeded in meeting up with the person they wanted to. Ren says that he kept an eye on where Nora was going, while Nora took to the trees until she saw Ren appear. The man is very stealthy when he wants to be."

"So how did you and Pyrrha meet up?"

"Almost pure chance. I actually saw two other people first, but they had already teamed up with each other." He omitted the fact that Weiss had not looked overjoyed at the time. He continued, "Pyrrha had landed nearby and said that she had been a little concerned as my landing strategy had been unusual."

The twins burst into laughter at this point. Amber said, "Fair enough. It is not as though you were taught it at combat school or in the field like everyone else. I am just glad that I took the rumours seriously enough to teach you some of the basics."

Nancy who recovered first, "So Pyrrha Nikos was the brave knight rescuing the damsel in distress."

Mum intervened, "Girls, don't tease your brother."

"So, what relic did you choose and why?" asked dad

"There were not that many left when we got there. We had made a bit of a detour and so I just chose one at random. It turned out Nora had picked up the other White Rook five minutes before."

Amber who knew more of the story then the rest asked, "Why were you chosen as team leader?"

Jessica said, "That puzzled me and Nancy. Without being rude, you are clearly less trained and experienced than your teammates. Pyrrha is Pyrrha and the other two were the doubles champions in the Mistral combat school competition last year."

Jaune said, "I was astonished at the time, and it took me a long time to accept that it was not a mistake or a joke. However, my team is happy about it, our friends thought that it made sense and eventually I could see there was some logic behind the reasoning. One of the things that Beacon focuses on is working as a team rather than as individuals or two pairs and they look for someone who is good at coordinating to be the team leader rather than the best fighter."

He paused and to his surprise Dad said, "That's why Beacon usually does well in the first round of the Vytal festival. It is almost expected for them to get three teams through to the second round from each year." Amber nodded and the twins kept their peace.

Jaune continued, "No one disagrees that the other three are all better trained and are currently better fighters than me. However, none of them were used to thinking as a team. Pyrrha has been used to fighting solo as that is what the Mistral Regionals tests, Ren and Nora have been best friends since the age of eight and are used to fighting as a pair. I spent two years with mum on Grimm defence duties. I learnt from her how to direct a team of people and to spot opportunities for them to take advantage of."

Nancy asked, "I can see that you could have learnt that skill from mum. However, they chose the leader on the first day. How on Remnant did you get the chance to demonstrate that you had that skill?"

"It was because the four of us were fighting an Alpha Deathstalker and none of us were strong enough to take it out by ourselves."

Nancy said, "You cannot be serious? They let you fight one as novice hunters in training."

"Apparently a professor and a team of second years was available to intervene, but Professor Ozpin thought we could tackle it. Actually, they had surveillance drones in the forest, and they recorded the fight. I can play it on the TV screen."

The family watched and Jaune described how he had seen how when Ren had fired bullets where its stinger joined its tail, Jaune had spotted that he had weakened it and told Pyrrha to use her shield to separate the stinger from the tail. He then pointed out how he had directed Pyrrha to then use her shield to launch Nora into the air to hammer the stinger through the Deathstalker's head. He stopped the video after Ren had slumped to the ground

Dad slapped the table and laughed. "That was nifty. I bet you were the most impressive team at initiation."

Jaune said "Not quite." He resumed the video and showed the family how Team RWBY had dealt with the Alpha Nevermore using all four team members. Lavender just gawped and even the twins were impressed.

Jessica said, "I hope the rest of the Beacon teams are not remotely as good as that. If they are it will make for a very demoralising Vytal festival for Haven."

"There are two other teams which have no real weak links and operate well together. One is a team which relies on strength and the other team is unpleasantly good at doing the unexpected."

Mum looked at him and said, "I am glad you found the time you spent with the LGDF worthwhile. However, while I can see that we helped you direct your teammates to deal with Grimm, I'm not certain that we were much help for dealing with humans."

"Some of the skills are the same. It is also true that normally just asking Pyrrha and Nora to strut their stuff does the job and usually tactical brilliance is not necessary to win matches. I can spot where we could have done things better, how not to make the same mistakes twice and suggest how to deal with trickier opponents."

Dad then asked, "Son, you did miss out on combat school. I was very worried when I heard that Amber had persuaded you to apply to Beacon and that you had been accepted."

"I can't lie. For the first few weeks, I was out of my depth and relied on my aura strength to get through the fights. Pyrrha, Brede, Dove and Cardin sparred with me and got my fighting skills up to an acceptable level. It has been hard work as besides normal classes I had to do catch up classes with the mustangs and a few by my own. On top of those I had the special seminars for team leaders. I don't have much spare time at weekends."

A buzzer went off and dad said, "Lavender, Claire, time to get out the lamb and finish off the vegetables. Amber, could you top up everyone's glasses, please?"

Jaune knew that there would be about ten minutes before Lavender would start bringing in the vegetables and that he would be at the mercy of the twins for that time.

Jessica said, "So you have a strong aura?"

"I am told so. My friend Ruby says I seem to take about half the damage anyone else does from a comparable hit."

The twins exchanged glances and Nancy said, "You were a little economical with the truth, big sis."

Jessica said, "I can see why, though. You know dad told Lavender not to bother the headmaster about why Jaune's aura was unlocked so late."

Amber said "It does not surprise me. Anyway, this is a family matter. It is between Jaune and dad to discuss it. I will be encouraging dad to talk to Jaune. "

Nancy said, "Fine. Just let him know that we are suspicious as well. You know how he tries to avoid difficult conversations."

Jessica said, "Jaune, we will carry on obeying Amber and treat this as normal. You do realise that there will be lot of press speculation on this particularly as the Vytal festival approaches."

Just then Lavender appeared with the roast potatoes and the family meal resumed.

/-/

Qrow was in a bar killing time before going back to his hotel room. Besides drinking he was jotting questions for tomorrow down in his notebook. Ozpin and Glynda were worried about the woman in the bullhead which Roman Torchwick had escaped on after his fight with Ruby. Certainly, anyone who could put Glynda on the defensive in a fight but was unknown to all four academies must be a prime suspect for being a member of Team Salem. At the moment, the only lead was that she had seen fit to rescue Roman from Glynda.

Port and Oobleck had provisionally identified him as an ex-student of Haven called Norman Bartleby. He had belonged to a Team Brass and had fought in one Vytal festival. They had gone out in the second round but had been beaten by the losing finalist and in the first round their only loss had been to a team which reached the semi-finals. Port took his preparations for commenting on the Vytal festival seriously and kept detailed notes about each competitor in notebooks. According to the notebooks, Port had rated him and particularly noted that he had excellent reactions in close combat. He had dropped out of Haven before the next Vytal Festival and according to Port's notes the story was that there had been a family tragedy and that he had to leave Haven to look after a young cousin. While Qrow was not a huge fan of the Vytal festival, the man certainly seemed competent enough and the clips Port had shown him

Ozpin had decided that they should try and turn Roman into an informant, He had said that there was no point in trying to arrest him until they knew what made him tick and what had led him into a life of crime. Oobleck had agreed on this and said that it helped to know what would nudge person to co-operate and to avoid the clangers which would make them dig their heels in.

Qrow's task for the next week or so was to follow the leads they had. This afternoon he had asked his contacts in Mistral about the other members of team Brass and had been disturbed to find that all three had gone missing in action in the last three months. This suggested that someone had been covering Roman's tracks. He had bought a copy of Wisden for the year Norman/Roman had fought in the festival and was seeing if he knew any of the other Mistralian competitors that year well enough to ask them about old comrades without arousing suspicion.

Tomorrow he would fly out to the address which had been given on the entry form for Norman Bartleby. It was in a remote corner of the Argus province and was called Brunswick Farms. He took another swig from his drink when he was startled by an unexpected voice. "Hello brother." He turned to see Raven dressed in what for her passed as a disguise. "Don't worry. Today is not your day to die. I heard a rumour that I thought I should tell you. Pass it on to the conman, Ironhead, and Ms Whiplash. If you want me to ever repeat the favour do not tell Theodore or Lionheart I told you. It does not affect them, and I do not trust Lionheart."

/-/

Jaune was now feeling full after the Roast Lamb. There was going to a gap before dessert. Mum said that it made sense to allow enough food to reach the stomach to make certain that there was room for pudding. He had like the fact that the lamb had been coated in a mixture of rosemary, lemon, garlic, anchovies, butter, and juniper berries which had added a subtle tang to the meat.

He was not surprised when Lavender asked him, "Is Pyrrha Nikos really as pleasant as she comes across on the telly?"

Jaune had no problem with saying, "Actually she is even better in real life. She is kind, polite and has a subtle dry sense of humour. It is a privilege to know her."

Nancy asked, "How do her and Valkyrie get on? There was a lot of gossip here that the two were not on speaking terms."

"Total nonsense. We are a close team and practice and eat together all the time." Jaune was genuinely astonished that anyone could have believed that the two disliked each other..

Dad said, "Never believe anything they say in the Remnant Enquirer is a good motto for life."

Amber then asked, having been prompted to by Jaune earlier today so as to get the question out of the way. "I know a lot of people in Mistral were upset about Pyrrha going to Beacon rather than Atlas. Has she ever said why?"

Jaune had prepared his non-answer with Pyrrha. She had said she understood that people would ask the question and that while she would not talk about it herself, she had no problem with him speculating along these lines. "I do not know, and she never says anything about that decision. She does say that Mistral is her home, and she loves it. However, she has enjoyed fighting people at Beacon whom she has not fought before and who try out new things on her. She actually laughed and congratulated team LILAC when they beat us in a match."

Lavender said, "Pyrrha lost a fight?!"

"Team JNPR did. Team LILAC had devised a plan which relied upon one of its members semblances and another person's capacity for destruction and only worked under very specific conditions. Basically, they took out two of us within the first thirty seconds and then played the numbers game." Strictly this was not entirely true although Pyrrha had been the last to be eliminated but the legend of the invincible girl should be preserved.

Nancy said, "They revealed a semblance in a practice match? That is unusual."

"Their leader said that it made sense to them to do so. It meant that the respect which the other teams have for them and the team member with the semblance was enhanced and virtually ensured that they would be chosen for the Vytal Festival. Their leader complained that too many teams were going into fights with Team JNPR with the mindset that the best they could hope for was to lose with honour and the fact that we could be beaten would encourage other teams to think laterally themselves. I think, although Pyrrha has said nothing, that in Mistral people were stepping into the arena with her already thinking that they were beaten. At Beacon when she fights members of team RWBY they are always trying their hardest and have taken her down to 30% aura. One member of team LILAC managed a time draw with her although lost easily on aura depletion. I think she enjoys a battle."

Jessica nodded, "That makes sense. In the last tournament only Arslan really put up a fight against her. She certainly was the only one angry with herself for losing."

Mum said, "I do not know how much of it has filtered back to Vale, but the press here has definitely adopted Team Juniper as an additional Mistralian team following the White Fang attack in Vale. Certainly no one is talking about Pyrrha Nikos being a traitor anymore."

Nancy said, "It is not just the press. The kingdom needs heroes at the moment and seeing Pyrrha strutting her stuff against the White Fang and the rest of you improvising weapons or charging in relying only on your aura has lifted people's spirits."

Dad intervened, "Let's not talk politics tonight. We will get enough of that tomorrow from the husbands." That was as near as Jaune could remember Dad indicating irritation to John and Peter, Jaune's brothers in law. Jaune did not enjoy their company, if only because he had found them a little condescending during the unlocked aura period.

"Understood dad. I was not going to talk about why people need heroes, only that they do."

Dad nodded and continued, "Jaune, your sisters and I will tell you never charge in again using only your aura when it is not necessary. From the clips they showed it was clear that Pyrrha Nikos and the woman with the umbrella had that side of the fight under control. Ok taking a prisoner was a good move but was that really your original plan?"

"We improvised, the original plan was to get to the cloakroom and grab our weapons, but we then saw that would not be necessary."

"I'm relieved. That at least makes sense."

Lavender asked "How well do you know the girl with the scythe? She looked rather young to be at Beacon, but she was really great in that fight with the Nevermore and outside the nightclub." Jaune was glad that Beacon had made certain that only the censored version had been distributed which did not show her dismembering her opponents.

"That's Ruby. She was the first friend I made at Beacon. She's only sixteen but is really great at fighting and weapon design."

"How come she got in so young?"

"I think it was the same way I got in. Professor Ozpin has five discretionary picks a year. In her case she foiled a dust shop robbery in Vale by a renegade huntsman called Roman Torchwick."

"Is she your girlfriend?"

"No. We are just good friends. She is sort of an honorary sister."

Nancy said, "Don't you have enough of us without inventing more?"

"It would feel kind of creepy to make a pass at her. She sort of reminds me of Lavender."

Mum said, "Quite right, Jaune."

Jaune noted that Lavender looked quite pleased at the reply.

/-/

Sienna Khan was contemplating her mortality. It had only taken her five years to reach the point the Belladonnas had been in when she had overthrown them. She was uneasily aware that the operations of the White Fang had allowed factions in Mistral to pass laws which although ostensibly designed to combat terrorism were being used to harass young Faunus. In addition, there had been an outbreak of attacks on Faunus which local police forces were not bothering to even make a pretence at investigating. In Vale a human supremacist party was polling at its highest since just before the Faunus wars and prominent members of the Faunus rights organisations were being killed. At least Vale seemed to be trying to catch the people responsible.

She had known that there were risks with her strategy of using limited violence to bring the kingdoms to the negotiating table. However, so far she had seen all of the predicted downsides without the upsides. She felt slightly ambivalent about the increase in recruitment in Mistral and Vale. Unlike Adam, she wanted to avoid an all-out war between human and Faunus

As far as bringing the kingdoms to the negotiating table were concerned, While Atlas had improved the treatment of their own Faunus and now enforced the rules for operating mines in Vacuo, they had done so on their own terms in a manner which reduced militancy without been credited to the White Fang's operations. The Mistral government had despite not being able to do anything effective against the White Fang and despite economic turbulence still refused to negotiate. The multi-kingdoms had relocated some of their operations from Mistral to Vale and that had meant that Adam Taurus had insisted on extending the White Fang's operation to Vale.

Originally the instructions had been to focus on the multi-kingdoms supply lines and infrastructure and to carry out a few assassinations of local CEOs. However, now Blake had left him Adam had in effect stopped obeying orders and there was nothing she do about it. She was particularly concerned about the activities of the so-called allies he was working with and what their aim was. He was beloved by the militant rank and file so he could not take direct action against him without splitting the movement. In the meantime, the Albains gently insinuated that her judgement was defective and claimed with the benefit of hindsight that they would have done things differently and better. The winding up of the White Fang's operations in Atlas had been blamed on her and not on Adam's trust of a self-confessed double agent or his bad treatment of Blake.

Adam had also used the Atlas fiasco to justify not telling her or the war cabinet what his plans were in Vale citing operational security. To the extent that she was getting information from Vale it had been from a very junior member of his force. She might be being paranoid, but the Faunus being targeted in Vale seemed to belong to the old Belladonna moderate wing of the movement and including her own supporters rather than the hardliners. As for what on Remnant he had thought he was up to with the attack on the night club and trying to kill Kali Belladonna. He had broken radio silence to blame the debacle on Bruno improvising but had not answered the question of why they were going after Kali. Still again she had been left with no good options. Disavowing the raid suggested correctly that she was not in control and would be resented by those who had known the attackers, claiming it showed the White Fang to be careless of civilian casualties and were now targeting moderate Faunus leaders while keeping silent was not really an option. Typically, the Albain twins had been out of contact.

Unlike the Belladonnas she did not have someone to hand over to who would trade off a peaceful change in leadership for allowing her to live. Unlike Ghira and Kali she did not have a power base to retreat to. Even so two weeks ago she had been thinking of either trying to disappear from view totally or claiming political asylum in Menagerie. Then someone had come with an offer which offered her and the movement a third way. It might be desperation on her part, but after the night they raided Junior's Raven Branwen's plan was now the only game in town as far as she was concerned.

/-/

Jaune had forgotten how delicious his mum's chocolate roulade was. She insisted the recipe was easy, but the mixture of eggs, dark chocolate, sugar, double cream, and orange liquor never failed to fill him with joy.

He helped clear away the plates and joined in the drying up with Amber while mum washed up. At the other end of the kitchen dad, Lavender and the twins were putting the meat for tomorrow's family barbeque into the marinades so that they would be perfect for tomorrow lunch time. Since dad's semi-retirement from hunting, he had become the main cook in the house as mum's Local Grimm Defence Force meant that she was the only full-time wage earner. Besides which dad devoted the same obsessive attention to detail which had kept him alive as a hunter to cooking and thoroughly enjoyed it. When Jaune had been shadowing mum doing her LGDF work, they would come home to dinner which had been prepared by dad with help from Lavender and it had been quire relaxing at the end of the meal for him and mum to wash up and talk about how the day went. Mum would explain why she had torn a strip off one guy, teased a second and reassured a third.

They then sat down to finish off the opened bottles of wine and finish interrogating Jaune about his first term. They eventually got on to the subject of the Salutations photoshoot of the students at Beacon.

His mother said, "Lavender insisted that I buy five copies of the issue of Salutations."

Lavender said, "Before you ask Nancy, I have the picture of Jaune's team on my bedroom wall and so do most of my friends."

Jessica said, "Well we always said that Jaune always had the option of becoming a model or a gigolo." She winked at Jaune in an attempt to signal that this was good natured teasing rather than a jibe.

Nancy added, "You scrubbed up well in that photograph. Some of my friends asked when you would next be in town." She looked as though she wanted to say more, but mum had given her a look and nodded towards Lavender.

Dad asked, "Did you get paid?"

Jaune said, "There was a payment to Beacon and some payments to charity. Frankly they only really wanted Pyrrha, Coco, Weiss, and Brede, but they would only agree if those members of the teams who wanted to be were also in the magazine."

Nancy said, "Do you have Coco Adel's team photo on your wall as well, Lavender?"

"Of course." Lavender either totally missed or ignored the slight snigger in Nancy's voice.

Jaune pre-empted a possible conversation, "I've seen her and Yatsuhashi fight. She is very good and confident. I gather he was starting out at combat school when the twins were there."

"You mean the tall guy?" said Jessica. "I remember him. Anyway, good to hear she's not just a clothes horse."

Nancy intervened. "It was also interesting seeing Weiss fight. She was a better scrapper then I would have guessed."

Dad said, "The blonde in the picture with Brede Campion reminded me of your mother when I first met her."

Jaune was not certain what happened next, but he suspected Amber had kicked both the twins under the table before they could say anything.

He said as nonchalantly as he could "Lydia's a good sort. No nonsense about her."

"Definitely like your mother." grinned dad.

Mum ignored this and said, "She reacted well in the fight at the nightclub."

Lavender said, "The footage they released of that fight was awesome."

The evening continued with them quizzing him about the fight with the White Fang at Junior's Club Mistralian.

Just before they went to bed his mother called him over.

"Jaune, I will think about things overnight, but I need to talk to you before tomorrow's barbeque. The neighbours and some friends as well as your brothers in law will be there and they will want to speak to you about Pyrrha, Beacon and the fight at the night club. While I do not want you to tell lies, you need to understand that they all feel that Mistral is in a mess at the moment. Some of them blame the government and some of them blame the White Fang. Others are angry at Vale and Atlas. As Amber has no doubt told you they react badly to being told they are wrong, but you can perhaps get away with suggesting that things are more complicated than they think."

/-/

Ironwood and Winter were waiting in his office when Glynda arrived at 10.

"Glynda, you said that you had a message from Qrow you wanted to discuss with us."

"He was in Mistral City this evening when his sister appeared and gave him a message for us."

"Raven Branwen? I know she can look after herself, but that seems bold even for her."

Winter asked, "Are you certain he was not drunk or hallucinating?"

"He was sober enough. I did double check the code words to make certain that he said what he seemed to be saying. Before I pass on what he said, he made it clear that this is for us and Ozpin only. We are not to discuss the source with anyone and in particular not with Lionheart. He said that if it leaked that his sister would be after blood and most likely his. He also said that for his sister to approach him there must be some truth to it, although it was probably a part of a wider game."

James nodded, "Go on Glynda. I and Winter agree to Qrow's conditions."

"She told him that Adam Taurus is working with a psychotic Scorpion Faunus, a massive quietly spoken man and a woman who sounds like the one I fought in Vale. She believes that the first is Tyrian Callows and the second to be Hazel Rainart. She does not know what exactly they are planning in Vale, but it requires large quantities of dust. She also said that you should think again about your double agent in the White Fang. Qrow said that we should take it seriously."

Ironwood thought for a few seconds and asked, "Do you agree with Qrow's analysis that it is unlikely that his sister would have alerted him unless there was something to this?"

"I do. When she resigned she told us that if we left her and the tribe alone, she would leave us alone. She said that while she does not trust Ozpin he is not psychotic and that she has seen enough of what Salem does not to risk giving a scorpion a lift across the river. I am surprised at her actually giving us a clue as to what Salem is up to as she had said that she was going to avoid attracting her attention, but perhaps she has some residual concern for her husband and daughter and some affection for Beacon. More likely it fits in with some plan of hers."

Ironwood said, "Her daughter?"

Winter said, "Yang, one of Weiss's teammates."

James raised an eyebrow and said, "Can we be certain that she is not playing us?"

"I do not see how warning us about plots in Vale helps her, apart from putting us in her debt if she is telling the truth. Ozpin has said that she does has an unusual sense of honour and a belief in repaying her debts. She was the one who brought back Summer's body and said that she would have saved her if there had any chance of either of them surviving. She told Ozpin to his face that she was not going to work with the group anymore and why. She went back to her tribe of murdering bandits which had been declining and turned them into the strongest military force in Mistral."

Ironwood said, "She has kept to whatever bargain she has with Sienna Khan despite being offered a fortune to betray her."

Glynda said, "It is clear that Salem is planning something in Vale soon. Ozpin and I are trying to work out what and how. This message does make it clear that there is a faction in the White Fang which is not happy about what Adam Taurus is up to there. It does increase the urgency of finding out the identities of those involved in her plan."

"I understand and we hope to get back to you tomorrow. We might have a lead, but we do not want to send you on a wild Grimm chase."

He sighed and then said "I know that I have been nagging Ozpin about this, but do you think that she is targeting the Fall Maiden? After all the Spring Maiden has been missing for ten years and we only have Theodore's word for it that the Summer Maiden is still alive and well. Think about it and talk it over with Ozpin, but he should think about using Dr Polendina's maiden transfer equipment."

"I know, but it requires a fully informed volunteer. To be blunt, he is not happy about asking one of the students to agree to this before the equipment has been tested. No doubt you and Winter would be happier for us to test it first on someone you do not know."

"Fria is still not ready to die and is mostly still aware of the world."

"James, we both know if you were absolutely certain you would have told Fria that it is her duty to pass on her powers while she can still choose whom to pass them to and that Atlas needs a Maiden who has full control of her faculties. Anyway, choosing a person is problematic. Of the last three maidens one went AWOL, one is a coma, and one, at best, hides away from the world and only speaks to Theodore. We need to be very certain that the person who is chosen has the fortitude to deal with things. While all the records show that the Maidens say that they remain themselves after the powers pass, it would really help if a living maiden could tell our eventual volunteer that for a fact. Currently the only available maiden is unable to hold a rational conversation 50% of the time. It would really help if Winter was the maiden."

"If Atlas was being targeted in the same way as Vale is then I would have no hesitation. Assuming Salem is after maidens and their powers, she must strongly suspect that Ozpin is keeping her barely alive at Beacon. My intelligence operatives report that this W the unknown person only started his transmissions recently. That was around a month after the ambush."

"I will discuss it with Ozpin. The volunteer problem cannot be overstated. However, I will push him into making a shortlist of candidates. I assume the double agent reference makes sense to you. I have no right or desire to know the details."

Ironwood said, "Yes, it does. It also confirms that her informant must be high up in the White Fang and that the report should be taken seriously. Goodnight, Glynda. I hope to have something to report to you in the morning."

After Glynda had left he turned to Winter and said, "I suppose that we had better consider the double agent point."

Winter said, "To be effective he had to be convincing. He said that it was clear people felt doubtful of him despite the Raddock kidnap. He decided that telling a select few people that he had originally been employed by us to infiltrate them but had double crossed us was the best way of embedding himself. It was also of interest seeing what they wanted us to know through the information they provided him to feed us. We have discussed this before. He is not motivated by ideology or a view of the world. He used us to take revenge on people who had killed his friends and to become a huntsman. It so happened that by working for us he could get permission to kill a few people who worked for Atlas multi-kingdoms and not be prosecuted for it."

Ironwood said, "He did tell us that he had told Sienna Khan and Adam Taurus that if captured he would pretend to have been our agent all the time, disclose as little as he could get away and then become a huntsman with a view to re-joining them later."

"Clearly he told the story well enough for someone to believe it."

I am not certain if it was ever made clear on the show what Ozpin had told Qrow and Ironwood. The fact Qrow knew someone would come looking for the cane means he knew Ozpin would reincarnate and it seems reasonable for them to believe that he had a foe who similarly reincarnated. Therefore, having the inner circle knows that Salem exists and is trying to destroy human civilisation seems reasonable even though they have not been told the entire story.