The Raven and the Maiden

by muskrat3

Raven is just trying to turn a bandit tribe into a government without anyone noticing She hadn't bargained for a Maiden suffering from imposter syndrome wanting to join her tribe, a best friend who has to be talked out of foolhardy missions, a headmaster at Haven with a personal vendetta against her and the creepy henchmen of an immortal sociopath. Set 10 years before the series

4. C 4- The Headmaster and the new Maiden

I have revised Chapter 1 to make the Headmaster a more nuanced character.

Raven was doing her best to put Emma at ease. While they had fed, she had told Emma stories of her time at Beacon. No one in the Tribe would appreciate the stories, and it was a way of making her seem more like Emma. She got the sense that Emma envied the rapport that Team STRQ had with each other. She lapped up the bizarre stories of how Beacon selected teams. Raven's semblance had made it easy for her and Qrow to game the system, but she had enjoyed inventing a cover story which was far sneakier.

The girl had referred to the tensions within her team, perhaps revealing more than she had realised. Her reaction to Raven's descriptions of the tensions of having a mixed team in a single dorm was entertaining. Haven gave their teams apartments rather than dorms with a small bedroom for each team member. However, that only alleviated things so far, and the questions she asked made it clear that Alex admired Trevor as much as Emma admired Martina, only with a little more self-awareness.

One advantage of serving the wine in mugs was that it made it easier for Raven to hide how much less Emma was drinking compared to Raven. It was clear that the young woman was now ready to tell all.

Okay, she needed to channel Summer's empathy and the persona of Tina Bandit Queen. Thank Remnant that Taiyang had introduced the programme to Team STRQ. It had come in surprisingly useful when she had come back to the Tribe and was going to be invaluable now.

There was an interlude while Vernal took Emma to the latrines. This allowed her to think about what she needed to learn from Emma before deciding what to do about the women. It would be useful to have a handle on why Wendy had chosen her. She also wanted to understand Headmaster Moriarty better. He was the main reason she and Qrow had been sent to Beacon all those years ago.

She was disturbed by Shady bringing her a message from one of her lieutenants near the coast. Merlot had asked for a meeting and had laughing boy with him. She could have done without this, but there was no point in being rude to Salem's lieutenants, and she had occasionally received aid in terms of dust and Lien. She wasn't allied to them, but according to Merlot, Salem took the view that Raven's activities weakened Mistral, so she should be encouraged.

When Emma returned, Raven asked about the meeting with Headmaster Moriarty, and Emma recounted the story.

/-/

Just as Emma was having dinner with Raven, a thousand miles away in the headmaster's study at Haven, Professor Moriarty was by himself assuaging his conscience and wondering whether Emma had encountered Raven yet and what the result would be.

He hadn't announced that Miss Gwendolyn Fitzroy had died yet, and he wanted to delay telling Ozpin and Fria until it was clearer how his gamble that the new Maiden would either kill Raven or die in the attempt and leave her powers to a more suitable candidate. The best solution was that both would die.

He didn't dislike Emma, but she was an honourable and weak woman in a nasty world. She should have asked him more questions before agreeing to the missions, and those she had asked showed that she had been listening too much to Miss Fitzroy. She would be too willing to follow Miss Fitzroy in deferring to Lady Fria and Professor Ozpin. Either Edith or Amber would make a better Maiden than her. Neither of them had hankerings for the mythical past of an honourable Mistral.

He had been headmaster for ten years and was enough of a ringmaster to keep the factions among the faculty from fighting each other. Unlike Professor Aqua or Professor Amethyst, he was also a realist. Well, at least more realistic than they were. He had learnt long ago not to pretend that he had perfect judgment.

Unlike Aqua, he knew it was too late to reverse the changes of the last eighty years. The first attempt this century to Make Mistral Great Again only succeeded in starting the Great War, which destroyed almost everything the movement had been trying to preserve.

The second had given rise to the Faunus Wars and had destroyed what sense of national unity had survived the Great War. He grimaced as he remembered the suggestion that Mistral's politicians were dyslexic and thought that the aim was to Make Mistral Grate Again– thank you, Dr Oobleck, for that phrase. Just true enough to hurt.

It was hard as a patriotic Mistralian to stomach the lack of regard that the other Kingdoms had for his homeland. Atlas and Vale congratulated themselves on having rebuilt better and stronger than before and looked at Mistral as almost a big basket case as Vacuo. Vacuo could at least pride itself on having resisted the Mistralian invasion and that they sort of made anarchy work. Sociologists said that they were arguably the happiest Kingdom. Not great on life expectancy.

Eighty years ago, Mistral was feared and admired. Now, it was looked at with a barely hidden contempt. Altas was waiting for Argus to decide to join them sometime in the next thirty years. Vale's films and TV programmes cast its idiots and villains as coming from Mistral, and the Vacuoans joked that Mistral sent its convicts and disgraced younger sons to run the Atlesian Multi-Kingdoms' mines for them. Again, too close to the truth to be really funny.

Unlike Amethyst, he knew that even if it was desirable for the Kingdom (and Moriarty was enough of a traditionalist to doubt it) to become a hybrid of the best bits of Argus and Vale, it could not be achieved without a new civil war or the voluntary splitting of the kingdom into at least three pieces.

What scared him was that his attempt to bring Mistral together by dealing with its internal problems now looked like it would speed up its self-destruction because of the stupidity of one of his old subordinates. Perhaps he had not supped with a long enough spoon in promoting the man when he left MBAD, but he had not expected his hand-picked successor to die young and the most gung-ho of his subordinates to be promoted.

He recalled the day Miss Fitzroy died. It was the end of term, and he had been busy awarding the fourth years their licences, encouraging and advising them on their future careers, and rewriting the speech he would give to the entire academy at 4 PM. He had, as always, done his day job to the best of his ability and had, in retrospect, failed to keep his eye on the most important variable.

The last time he had seen Gwendolyn Fitzroy, she seemed good for another two months. She had promised to discuss with him whom she proposed to pass her powers on after the end of the term. He half suspected that she had willed herself to die on the day before she would either have to break that promise or lie to him. It was also the day which made it hardest for him to find time to speak to the new Maiden.

His relationship with Miss Fitzroy had always been problematic. They only got on now because shared experiences of the past meant that they had more in common with each other than the new generations. They could understand and respect their differences now. At least he could respect her, and he thought she had grown to regard him as a lesser evil.

He had found out when he became headmaster that maidens existed and that she was the Mistral Maiden. Well, strictly, she was the Spring Maiden, but his understanding was that the Maidens had decided between themselves a long time ago that each Maiden should base themselves in one of the four kingdoms. At least, that was what the Lady Fria and Ozpin had told him. Theodore refused to discuss the issue or even admit that he knew who the Summer Maiden was. Well, he could hardly blame a Vacuoan for not trusting a Mistralian or an Atlesian. Remnant, he didn't trust Lady Fria not to force Mistral to pay any price to give up Argus Province. Another reason to kill Raven Branwen was to reduce the scope for Atlesian leverage in Argus.

He had been surprised to see Gwendolyn Fitzroy at the start of term, but when he learnt that her apprentice/companion had just turned thirty, he had guessed why. No doubt, she had planned to die in one last glorious fight against the Grimm while Lilian was with her family and transfer the maiden powers to her. Despite her best efforts, Gwendolyn somehow managed to survive the battle. Her fighting instincts were just too good to allow her to suicide by Grimm.

She had come to Haven looking for an alternative candidate to be the new maiden. She had made it clear that she wanted to choose someone from the right sort of family. In her view, only the Great Families of Mistral understood the concept of duty. In his view, all they understood was the need to pay lip service to it and it was the middle classes who were more likely to take it seriously.

He was aware that she thought him to be the wrong type of man and that she still remembered who his mother was. In her view, he was a politician who had no strong ideals and had risen because he was good at making himself useful to more powerful people and was open to bribes. That was unfair to him. It was just that his only objective was to keep Mistral as a single Kingdom and to avoid it falling into civil war. He was dedicated to keeping the show on the road. He did not particularly care about the inessential details of the laws and policies provided they were broadly liveable with by the majority of the population. By Mistralian standards, he was an honest and hard-working man. Most of the bribes he had received had been ploughed back into the MBAD and its activities in the Badlands.

He had asked eight women with impeccable family backgrounds and good to excellent skills to spend time with her. He had been certain that five of them would be unacceptable to her for various reasons. Even assuming that the term maiden was not used in the unicorn-catching sense, the fact that those women were more interested in glory and/or making a good marriage would put her off. The other three were all women whom he thought he could talk into sorting out the Badlands problem for Mistral and had suitable backgrounds. Amber Arc was not socially acceptable to Miss Fitzroy; otherwise, he would have added her to the mix.

Miss Fitzroy had made it clear that she did not want him interfering in her choice, and he had decided it was best to err on the side of being seen to accede to the request. She was a woman of the old school who knew how to engender loyalty. It was not worth running the risk that one of the servants would tell her if he or any member of the faculty known to be associated with him took a conspicuous interest in her visitors. He saw her once a week at a regular time for tea and cake. In retrospect, she must have done her best to put on a façade to persuade him that she still had a few months to live. In hindsight, he should not have trusted her to honour her promises to the son of a hotelier's daughter.

It had still been a shock to him when, at lunchtime on the final day of term, his PA had passed him a message saying that Gwendolyn Fitzroy had died during the night and Lilian Fortescue had a letter from her for him, which she wanted to deliver in person.

He cancelled his lunch and made time for Lilian. The woman had been crying but now had her duty face on. He was almost certain that he could have persuaded her to do what Mistral needed the next Maiden to do. Too many of her classmates had died because of Raven Branwen, and she had personal reasons for revenge.

She handed him a letter after they had exchanged the appropriate expressions of regret. He honestly felt them. He may not have agreed with or even liked Miss Fitzroy, but he respected her. What was that phrase? An honourable and decent huntress with whom I happened to have fundamental differences of opinion. She had dedicated herself to what she perceived to be the service of the people of Mistral. In the end, she had only delayed the inevitable. That part of Argus she had had her last hurrah in was doomed to be overrun by Grimm. Maybe he hadn't hidden that opinion of his well enough? When they had first met after he had become headmaster, he had pointed out that his activities over the preceding ten years had benefited the ordinary people of Mistral more than hers.

He had delayed opening the letter until Lilian had left. He had even asked about Lilian's plans and found that Miss Fitzroy had left her a life interest in the income of the trust fund, which the old maiden had used to support herself. This would enable Lilian to carry on providing her services as a Huntress to the poorer areas of Mistral in exchange for just room and board. He remembered that he had smiled to himself as that meant that the new Maiden must come from a wealthy family and he had hoped that she had chosen Edith Murgatroyd.

He was told that Gwendolyn did not want a fuss made about her death. Years ago, she had agreed with the head of her family that she would be buried in the family crypt but that the family would fund a memorial service for her at Haven. First thing next term, then. That gave him some scope for delaying informing Ozpin and Fria.

Finally, he opened the letter. He looked at the name in disbelief. It took him a minute or two to picture the young woman in question. As Headmaster, the troublemakers and the stars tended to be the ones who came to his attention. Finally, he placed her. She was hardworking, serious, and the least problematic member of a team that had underperformed this year. He had parked her as someone who, in her final year, he would encourage to join an established team of hunters that had lost a member in the last twelve months. She was a follower but not a leader.

He had no idea what made her tick or why Gwendolyn had chosen her. He checked the records, and, as he thought, Professor Aqua mentored the team. He cursed, but he knew he needed to talk to Aqua and a few others before he talked to the woman. Her family was part of the old nobility. Her Team leader came from the top echelons. He laughed to himself. He'd been too clever for his own good. He had chosen Martina as one of those that Gwendolyn would reject immediately. He had been right but had not realised that she was so unsuitable that she would dump his request on the woman who had admired her since the first day at Mistral Ladies Combat College. He then recalled that the woman had been practising in the arena when Miss Fitzroy arrived and would have made a good impression.

Okay, he would need to speak to Martina and once more to Lilian, if only to get her to talk to the woman and warn her about going to the Badlands. Maybe the servant who had been assigned to Gwendolyn as well. The best approach may be a mix of thanks for hard work and an enquiry into whom she had spoken to most and should be invited to the memorial. A few others might be worth a word with.

Like Miss Fitzroy, he understood the importance of treating your inferiors with appropriate respect. In his case, it was because he had always known that his career depended on being the compromise candidate. No one absolutely trusted him, but no one really hated him.

He had then caught something in the file. It was just a couple of sentences a few paragraphs apart, but it had been highly suggestive. Well, one of Aqua and Martina would know for sure, and it gave him a hook to persuade her to do what was necessary to save Mistral. It linked in with something in his past which had motivated him to go above and beyond the call of duty.

/-/

Emma recalled the meeting with the Headmaster. It had been seven in the evening before she had met with him. In some ways, that wasn't surprising. It had been the end of term, and he had to give a rousing speech before sending the students home, as well as running the school.

She knew that he must have made time to talk to other people about her as Martina had been nicer to her than she had been since the end of the first term after tea, and Lilian had asked her to meet with her at 10 in the Black Widow. Even Professor Aqua had gone out of his way to compliment her on how hard she had been working last term.

As she arrived, she saw Amber Arc leaving the headmaster's office. The young woman shook her hand and said, "Have a great holiday. I suspect things will be better for you next term - I've just been telling the headmaster how much my team rates you. I'll buy you a drink in the college bar if you come down later." She remembered blushing at the compliment from the best student in Vale and watching the tall blonde striding off.

The Headmaster bowed to her when she came in. "Emma, I'm afraid that we haven't really spoken before. This is normally a good thing. I normally only meet the team leaders and troublemakers in the first year, not the diligent students. I spend most of my time fundraising for Haven and the academies. It is one of the reasons that we have the best facilities and dorms in the four kingdoms."

After they were both seated, he said apologetically, "I'm sorry, but there is no protocol for greeting a new Maiden. Miss Fitzroy survived for forty years and outlived four of my predecessors. My understanding is that her longevity is exceptional rather than the norm. Miss Fitzroy was the Winter Schnee of her generation before she became the Spring Maiden."

The man chuckled to himself before saying, "I am perhaps the only human – person- in Mistral who knows that the legend of the wizard who gave away his powers is true. I can assure you that what happened last night was not just a dream."

Emma nodded. "I am glad to know that I'm not going mad." Wendy's voice inside her head told her not to trust this man and that the best lies contained a lot of truth.

"I have been busy this afternoon finding out about you as well as dealing with the end of term. Miss Fitzroy asked me to let her meet eight students who fulfilled what she saw as the necessary requirements of birth and skill to become the Spring Maiden. You were not among the original nominees."

"Martina said that I was a better choice than her for listening to the stories of a dying huntress and that I was at least as well born as her." That was a paraphrase, but it was accurate.

The headmaster grimaced, and she wondered why. He replied, "She was right."

The man had looked earnestly at her.

"It is for each Maiden to determine the best use of her powers. Rightly, in my view, all four Maidens jointly decided not to become involved in the Great War or the Faunus Wars. I know that Miss Fitzroy was scrupulous about not killing persons unless they attacked her or the people she was defending. I know from speaking to your teachers and from your record that you share that belief. By the way, I applaud that, for you, persons include Faunus. I understand that you are not just polite but considerate towards the servants at Haven."

The voice in the back of her head said, "Remember, he's a manipulative politician. He's spent the last six hours working out how to push your buttons. You were beneath his attention before. Play along for now."

"I was brought up that way, sir. My Ayah was a cat Faunus." Emma blushed as she used the archaic term for a nanny.

The headmaster frowned, "I didn't know that. My mother and my maternal grandmother looked after me when I was young. Still, if it taught you that Faunus are persons, perhaps it was for the best."

"Sir?"

"If I can't be honest with you, who can I be honest with? To get ahead in Mistral when I was your age, you needed to say that equal but separate was a self-evident truth, and the lack of ability meant it was right that four times the resources a head went into educating humans rather than Faunus. It was also politic to believe that the Sam Raven laws were just. The idea that there would be Faunus students at Haven, let alone a Faunus Professor, would have resulted in riots. Still, times have changed in Mistral. Not as much as you or, indeed, I would like, but they have improved."

The voice in her head harrumphed at this but grudgingly admitted that what he said about the past was true. Wendy still did not trust the man and said that he probably told Professor Aqua that he regretted the changes, but they could have been worse.

He continued, "I would like to believe that if I spent more time with students, I would have seen the potential which Miss Fitzroy saw in you and that your professors had overlooked or underestimated. It is clear that your team should have had more attention this year. Still, the Professors who are Team Mentors understandably do not welcome interference. I need to be very certain that a team has a serious problem before I intervene."

She nodded, and the headmaster waited for her to say something. Finally, he broke the silence, "One reason you have been lost in the mix is that you are the first member of your distinguished family to come to Haven for fifty years. There is no senior member of the family calling in favours from old friends in the faculty or singing your praises to them."

Again, he waited for a response, but Miss Fitzroy's voice in her head told her to wait him out and not to give him a clue as to how to manipulate you. When she said nothing, he continued, "To be blunt, traditionally, the women of your family are married off as soon as they turn eighteen, and the men go into politics or the family business. I had to ask myself why your father was happy for you to go down the huntress path and why he hasn't visited you since you have been at Haven. Your team leader and Professor Aqua enlightened me."

She remembered cringing at the time. She was about to be told the answer to the question she had always had in the back of her mind but had never dared ask. She wasn't sure that she wanted the answer.

"While I believe that they are scurrilous rumours spread by enemies of your family, I gather that in polite society, they are just plausible enough to sow doubt."

She agreed with Wendy when, in the back of her head, she harrumphed that Moriarty was just manipulating Emma by seeming sympathetic.

She took Wendy's advice and lifted her head. "What rumours?" She was going to force him to be brutal.

"That Martina's uncle and your mother had an affair and that you are his daughter."

The floodgates opened. She'd always sort of known that something was wrong. She didn't look like her father and brothers and was stronger and more athletic than them.

The headmaster looked at her with concern and said, "I apologise, but has no one ever said it directly to you before?"

"Not in so many words. It makes a whole lot of things people have said to me, or the way they treat me makes sense."

It explained why her father didn't love her despite the fact she tried so hard to be the perfect daughter and that her mother had been so glad to send her away to combat school. It was why boys, who were pleasant to her when they first met, either ignored her or pushed things when they met again. It especially explained that line from Martina when telling her to take Martina's place in speaking to Wendy. "The Headmaster says that she wants to be surrounded by trainee huntresses from good families while she dies. Your father comes from as good a family as mine and you are more likely to enjoy her company."

He must have seen her flinch as he said, "While I can't know how you feel, I can guess it better than most."

"Sorry?"

"My father was the youngest son of a family whose bank balance was as empty as our family tree was distinguished. He married the wealthy daughter of a Nouveau Riche hotelier and was disowned by most of his friends and family for doing so. When I came to Haven, the fourth years asked me to clean their shoes, fetch their drinks and turn down their beds. I laughed but did not oblige them. After I had made the semi-finals at the Vytal Festival, the jokes stopped. People remembered my father's family and forgot about my mother. My success also rehabilitated my siblings in polite society. I have never forgotten my mother or forgiven the insults to her."

Wendy's voice in the back of her head said he's telling you the truth, but he's manipulating you. He's going to make you an offer from the Queen of the Grimm. Let him think you will consider taking it.

/-/

At this point in the story, Raven said, "He's cleverer than I thought he was."

"Sorry?"

"Don't apologise unless you have actually done something wrong. Wendy was right to warn you about him. My headmaster at Beacon was also good at manipulation.

She took the opportunity to refill Emma's glass. "Sorry, but I believe it is better to be honest."

The woman paused, "I think Wendy may have been a little harsh on the Headmaster. He was just being polite when he said he did not believe the rumours. What else was he going to say? It wasn't as though he was present at your conception."

Raven refilled Emma's mug. "He was manipulating you but using arguments he believed in and had worked for him. To be honest, did the fact that he made it clear that he was an example of success can cause past allegations to be forgotten or reinvented make you readier to listen to him?"

Emma nodded and softly said, "Yes." Raven was indeed Tina. She understood Emma and was honest with her.

"So how did he explain that coming to the Badlands satisfied your duties as a Maiden and gave you a chance to squash the rumours?

/-/

Emma cast her mind back. Headmaster Moriarty had looked at her and said, "The Spring Maiden's role is to protect Mistral and look after the greater good. Each of the other Kingdoms has its own Maiden. The Maiden has to do her duty while not advertising that she has magical powers or using those powers to become a queen. Miss Fitzroy used her powers to defend the areas of Mistral, which were least able to afford to employ professional hunters and train people who thought similarly to her. The current Winter Maiden is more politically active."

"Sir?" Emma hadn't known what he was getting at.

"As I said, you need to work out your role for yourself. I'm here to help you and make suggestions. In the end, though, you should make the choices for yourself."

"I understand. What are your suggestions?"

The headmaster leaned forward.

"One of the things which I and Miss Fitzroy agreed on was that the fact that no hunters or huntresses are allowed in the Badlands or, what is the phrase, the Branwen Protectorate, is a disaster for the people living there."

Emma had agreed, "Yes. She said the same thing. She wanted me to go there and fight the Grimm. Lilian said it was a bad idea."

"Miss Fortescue was still a student when I became headmaster. She wants to see you this evening together with Professor Pink to persuade you not to go to the Badlands. Her reasons would be good ones if you were an ordinary student rather than a Maiden. I want you to listen to the two of them for background information, but I would like you to go there in the next few days and undertake one, and preferably two, missions for Mistral."

Miss Fitzroy's voice told her that the missions would be for him primarily, although he would have persuaded himself that they were good for Mistral. Emma asked, "What are the missions, and why do you want me to take them on?"

The Headmaster had said, "I'd like to tell you a story which everyone pretends never happened. It involves a history lesson. One of the problems caused by the Great War and the Faunus Wars was that the less valued areas of Mistral were left to their own devices. We lost seventy per cent of Mistral's hunters during the Great War because they fought in it and then, forty years later, lost twenty per cent in the Faunus Wars due to the increased Grimm activity. Officially, Haven was neutral during that war. In practice, most hunters, including myself, kept themselves to dealing with the increased Grimm activity in the human-controlled areas. Of the minority who took part in battles slightly more fought on the side of the humans, but the quality of those who sided with the Faunus was better. I presume you have had Professor Pink's history lectures on the Great War?"

"Yes," She had wondered where this was going.

"It wasn't the losses in battle which lost us the Great War, nor was it "traitors from within". Disease killed more soldiers than the forces of Vale and Vacuo, and Grimm took even more. Most of the fighting was in Mistral and Vacuo. During the Faunus Wars, all the main battles were fought in Mistral."

In the back of her head, Wendy said he wasn't lying yet, and an older voice added he was right about the Great War.

The Headmaster continued, "In particular, in many rural parts of Mistral, including the Badlands, the Mistral Government called up so many hunters, huntresses, and aura-unlocked security personnel that the people living there had to make their own arrangements to deal with Grimm in the Great War. Unsurprisingly, bandit tribes filled the vacuum or pretended to. As panic attracts the Grimm, the civilians learnt that paying tribute to the bandits was better for their health than defying the bandits."

The man paused, "After both wars, the Government focused, rightly or wrongly, on restoring government to the areas that were seen as the most important from the perspective of Mistral City. The areas on the periphery were neglected. Some areas, including the Badlands, had not been reclaimed from the bandits before the Faunus Wars. When those ended, things were so bad that when Atlas and the Multi-Kingdoms offered to invest in Argus after the Faunus Wars, the government was happy to let them do so and even allowed them to build a military base."

Emma couldn't argue with any of this. Professor Pink had discussed this tangentially in his history lessons, and Wendy had said that as family money meant she could afford not to chase Lien, she had spent her time in the more impoverished areas of Mistral, which could not afford the better hunters and huntresses and whose Local Grimm Defence Forces were underfunded and corrupt.

"The result is now our most prosperous province, Argus, is very different from the rest of Mistral. Worse, a good third of the Kingdom feels little or no loyalty to the idea of Mistral while in Mistral City itself, there is a widespread desire to ignore those parts of the Kingdom or even to wish that we did not own them."

The Headmaster then explained that twenty years ago, after the end of the Faunus Wars, he had become the commander of the Mistral Bandit Affairs Division. The aim of the MBAD had been to deal with the bandit problem. He said, "To persuade businesses and government to invest in an area or people to stay there, it was necessary to get crime under control. If every lorry needs a security team on board to get it to its destination, why should anyone trade there or invest? If any farmer or trader who makes a go of things is robbed or finds family members being held to ransom, why should they stay put or work hard?"

Despite the voices in her head, Emma thought the headmaster was making a good point. He described how he had developed tactics for each area. Often, he had been able to trap the bandits into attacking a hunter-protected convoy or village and taking them out in one hit.

"We teach you that hunters and huntresses should not take sides in politics or wars and should not take pre-emptive action against alleged criminals and bandits. Self-defence and defence of the innocent are allowed and encouraged, but not killing people because you suspect that they may do something in the future or possibly unfounded accusations are made against them. Especially as some people used suspicion as an excuse for murdering Faunus." He was indirectly referring to the stories of hunters assisting in the Kulsa incident and, otherwise, dealing with uppity Faunus.

Emma had nodded at that and even Wendy had agreed. "In the MBAD, we provided false information to encourage bandits to commit crimes or attack civilians in areas where we were ready for them. It was their choice to act on that information. Once we had eliminated the ringleaders and the most unhinged, we tried to assimilate those who were left into the community. After demonstrating that we had a big stick, I believed in offering a carrot."

A voice in her head told her to ask him how he assimilated the remainder and chose the prioritised areas. She asked the question and he replied, "One of my political heroes said that it is best that the public does not enquire too closely into the making of sausages and laws. Often, we gave provisional pardons to the rank and file relying on good behaviour afterwards and found them jobs in factories and farms away from their area of operations. At the NCO level, we enlisted those we considered opportunistic rather than hardened criminals into the armed forces or the security groups. We even sent a few to Beacon as part of their Mustang program on the understanding that they stayed in Vale or Vacuo after they qualified. In other cases, we turned a blind eye to them being recruited by the Mistral crime gangs. An unfortunate fact of life in Mistral is that crime is inevitable, and it is better that it is organised. Besides, the crime lords are better at enforcing the eleventh and twelfth laws than the police."

"The eleventh and twelfth laws?"

"Thou shall not extract the urine, and thou shall not force the authorities to take serious action. I'm afraid that over the last twenty years, the criminal gangs have shown themselves to be rather more competent than the police in keeping crime to an acceptable level – or rather the level which can be ignored."

Emma had felt Wendy splutter with indignation but then also say that he may be right in practice.

"Anyway, while I was in charge of the MBAD, we pacified 80% of the areas controlled by bandits when I had started sufficiently for the Great Houses of Mistral and the Multi-Kingdoms to start investing in those areas again and for people, especially Faunus, to move back into them."

The man had genuinely sounded proud of this record. Emma re-asked Wendy's question about prioritisation.

"We prioritised the areas which the Great Houses and the Multi-Kingdoms wanted and funded us to deal with. The MBAD was not a priority for the Mistral Central Government until I started achieving results. I was allowed to solicit additional funding, and I chose the areas I felt most confident about clearing and where the volunteers of funds and equipment were most generous. By my third year in charge, the Mistral authorities loosened the purse strings as did the Multi-Kingdoms."

Wendy muttered something about bribery and corruption. Emma had tried not to react, but the headmaster must have expected something.

"You may well ask why and how I funded what we did in the Badlands. After all, next to no one with money was that interested in them. Miss Fitzroy spent time there, and the bandits left her alone."

He again put on a serious face. " I always believed that we needed to deal with the Badlands. Even assuming that the bandits did deal satisfactorily with the Grimm, the existence of the tribes caused the Badlands to be stuck in a permanent recession. Subsistence farming and no investment from outside. Anyone who made a go of things was likely to be robbed, and the fact that four tribes were competing for territory and loot further depressed the economy. It would have been bad enough if it had only been in the traditional Badlands, but as the Tribes grew, they expanded their activities. The SDC sold most of its mines within thirty miles of the Badlands and used the proceeds to develop the mines in Vacuo, which undercut the Mistralian mines. The others decided to keep going but did not spend major amounts of money."

"So what did you do?" Wendy had prompted the question.

"I solicited money to keep the Badlands tribes from expanding and used some of the subsidies and personal bribes from the Multi-Kingdoms to fund the army and hunter groups to reduce the area the tribes in the Badlands controlled. I also planted rumours that a geologist thought that there would be dust reserves in the Badlands. My aim was to advance either five miles or ten villages a year. I used informants to plan where to set ambushes and used misinformation and bribery to set the four tribes against each other. I also arranged for retaliation strikes by bullhead if there were any particular atrocities. By the time I became headmaster, I had halved the area the tribes operated in without spending that much money. I was confident that another six years would see them coming to terms with Mistral, provided we simply narrowed their scope of operations."

"So why did you become Headmaster when the job was unfinished?"

"They offered me the job. The previous headmaster of Haven wanted to retire. The faculty couldn't agree on a successor acceptable to him from amongst themselves, and I was approached to be the compromise candidate."

The man laughed, "They flattered me and told me that I had a record of pragmatic public service, did not make enemies, knew how to cultivate wealthy people and was an ex-Vytal Festival semi-finalist."

"It was also my dream job, and I thought that I had done the hard work at the MBAD. I had subordinates who knew how I operated and knew the plans for the few remaining areas other than the Badlands and would follow my plans for the Badlands. I also felt that it was just mopping up left."

He then sighed and added, "An additional reason I was acceptable to one of the factions in the faculty was that it allowed one of Professor Aqua's protegees to be promoted within the MBAD. My immediate successor died in a car accident after a year and a half, and Aqua's protegee became the leader. He had a special interest in subduing the Badlands and, in particular, the Branwen Tribe. He was also a man in a hurry, and when his subordinates questioned his tactics, he said you can't make omelettes without breaking eggs. While that is true, I do think that the chickens should survive the process."

Wendy's voice said, "From what I heard, that is a huge understatement. Moriarty didn't do anything to save the chickens once he heard about it."

The headmaster paused and looked sad.

"He broke so many eggs that eventually Raven Branwen arrived two days after giving birth and, in three months, destroyed the MBAD operations in the Badlands. The then leader was killed by her personally, and the regional headquarters was destroyed in a raid with fifty deaths, including seven huntsmen."

"I never heard about that."

"Nothing bad ever happens in Mistral. Officially, there was a bullhead crash, and the MBAD functions were incorporated into the army and the Local Grimm Defence Forces. Unofficially, it was decided to leave the Branwen Tribe alone. I told them at the time that we either had to make a deal with her or kill her. They refused to do the former and made half-hearted attempts at the latter, which failed badly. Let's say that no criminal gang is willing now to take a contract out on her, and even Marcus Black said that he wasn't interested."

"Who?"

"The most dangerous independent assassin in Mistral. Rumour is that he now earns more from people paying him a retainer not to accept contracts on them."

The headmaster had then opened a drawer in his desk and took out seven maps of West Mistral showing the growth of the Branwen Tribe's sphere of influence. "They now control three per cent of Mistral outright and operate in another seven per cent. This is an economic disaster for those neighbouring areas, and while no one admits it in Mistral City, the best people are not sent to those areas by the government or the Multi-Kingdoms. The second-rate and the dishonest are sent instead."

"Why doesn't the government do something?"

"There was one serious attempt three years ago when an ambitious colonel led a campaign against her. It ended in abject failure, his death, and the Mistral military not wanting to risk any confrontation with her."

"But why don't they try again?"

The headmaster paused, "People look for excuses not to do anything about the Branwen Tribe. They are always someone else's problem. The fact that some of the most prominent sponsors of the military mission died afterwards helped persuade people that the Branwen Tribe was best forgotten about."

"What were the excuses?"

"Originally, it was argued that the other tribes would unite against her or that her own tribe would kill her. Within two years, she either destroyed or united those tribes under her leadership, and she is no doubt worshipped by her own tribe. The next was that the Branwen Tribe was too small to control much territory, and there was a limit to their expansion. The maps I have shown you demonstrate that was a trifle optimistic."

Even Miss Fitzroy was shocked at the maps and told Emma she hadn't known things were that bad.

"Raven Branwen has shown no signs of slowing down and is almost certainly still a dangerous fighter. If she were a huntress, she would be at that age when practice and experience combined with physical fitness should mean that she is at the peak of her powers. She is younger than Professor Goodwitch at Beacon, and you saw how good she was at the exhibition match with Colonel Ironwood at the last Vytal Festival."

Emma had nodded. "I know what you mean." Only the match between Winter Schnee and Amber Arc had been as good. Even Martina had been impressed.

"She could have another thirty years in charge of the Tribe without being challenged. Success like hers commands respect. If she expands for even another ten years in the way she has been doing, then she may control a quarter of Mistral."

"The first mission I want you to consider is reconnaissance. None of us know what is happening in the areas she controls. There have been fewer people fleeing the area than I would have expected, and the stories of those who do are inconsistent or seem designed to get sympathy. Are they dead, enslaved, or flourishing?"

Emma had nodded. Even Wendy approved of this.

"There are rumours that she unlocks the auras of all members of the Branwen Tribe once they reach adolescence, even though this attracts Grimm. I would like to know whether that is true and, if so, how in Remnant they deal with the Grimm menace. Is the Branwen Tribe operating as a sort of Local Grimm Defence Force?"

Again, neither Wendy nor Emma could object to this.

"Professor Pink will tell you the other rumours. He was one of the few survivors of the military expedition three years ago. He was seconded as a political adviser but was mostly ignored. He was in favour of making a deal with her. I think it best you hear the story from him. Miss Fortescue knew many of the hunters and huntresses who were killed by Raven Branwen. I believe she volunteered to work with Miss Fitzroy as some form of survivor's guilt, although fortunately not a suicidal instinct. She was one of the few of Miss Fitzroy's associates who survived the experience of working alongside her."

Wendy was silent at this.

He halted, "Frankly, any indication as to how well they control what they hold will be helpful. If they are struggling to dominate what they hold, perhaps the analysts who say that there is a limit to the expansion are right." She didn't think he believed that to be the case.

"And my second mission?"

"If she finds out that you are a student from Haven and are spying, she will try and kill you at a time of her choosing. I would strongly recommend that you prepare yourself for the necessity to kill her if she attacks you. Frankly, if you find that she is in full control of the areas I have marked in red, then it would be the act of a true patriot to kill her before she expands her so-called Branwen Protectorate."

The Headmaster grimaced and said, "To be brutally honest, I have met the woman once and talked to people who knew her well. I have learnt never to underestimate her. I am asking you to deal with Raven Branwen because no one without the powers of a Maiden has a realistic chance of defeating her, especially if she has the backup of her tribe members. She avoids fights that she might lose and always fights at times of her choosing."

"But she's a person and a huntress herself."

"And one who has killed at least twenty hunters and huntresses personally. She may say that she is defending her Tribe, but she is causing real damage to the unity of the Kingdom. She needs to die for the good of Mistral."

"But don't I need more practice?"

"In a perfect Remnant, I would like you to have at least three months before you confronted her. Unfortunately, once she knows that Miss Fitzroy is dead, she will be wary of any intruders into her sphere of influence. I can keep Miss Fitzroy's death quiet for a week, maybe two, and that will give you a chance to get close to her. We have reason to believe that she pays some of the criminal gangs for intelligence about Mistral's intentions towards the so-called Branwen Protectorate. Certainly, she seemed remarkably well-informed about the military expedition three years ago, and the disappearances afterwards suggest that she can afford to hire assassins. If a student dropped out of Haven after having shown radical improvement and was rumoured to be heading west, she would put two and two together."

The headmaster looked at her and said, "Look, even if you don't encounter Raven Branwen, it would be helpful if you could report back from the Badlands. We have not had reliable intelligence from that area in years. We can talk again tomorrow after you have talked with Miss Fortescue and Professor Pink."

He paused, "I'm not going to pretend that this is an easy mission, and there are risks which need to be acknowledged. Miss Fitzroy chose you to succeed her as the Spring Maiden. If she hadn't chosen a particular person, it would have been a matter of random chance. For the sake of Mistral and Remnant, please have a person in mind if an accident happens. It is important that you are confident that they will be content to accept the responsibility. I would say that although you and Martina have been friends for a long time, I doubt that she would be happy about being landed with the role. In her letter to me, Miss Fitzroy said she also considered Edith for the role. I agree that she was a good second choice after you. Someone you should consider is Amber Arc. Miss Fitzroy was a traditionalist who thought the Maiden should be a member of the Atlas upper class, but I believe that candidates with a middle-class or professional huntsman background can also have the requisite sense of duty."

A pause, "Miss Arc was very complimentary about your abilities with the quarterstaff and your personal qualities. The fact that after your team failed to qualify for the Vytal Festival, you were happy to help her Faunus teammate improve her defensive skills with her quarterstaff was appreciated. That was one of the factors which persuaded me to offer you this mission. You value the greater good."

/-/

Raven looked at Emma/Debbie and, making certain that she could draw Omen ASAP, refilled Emma's mug with wine.

"I know what happened here seven years ago, but why didn't you try and kill me when you saw me? His arguments were justified from his viewpoint, and he wasn't totally lying. I certainly wasn't expecting a Maiden and would have been confident that I could deal with a student. You weren't to know that I had already heard that a student huntress had been seen in Watanabe two days ago talking to the authorities there."

The woman was shaken by this and replied, "Wendy didn't trust the Headmaster, and she said Lady Fria and Professor Ozpin would not have approved. Also, what I heard from Lilian and Professor Pink and what I heard and saw in Watanabe made me less certain that you deserved to die."

Frack, as far as Raven was concerned, Wendy was a snob, and if she had been Moriarty, she would have aimed the new Maiden at Raven. As for Lady Fria, well, she had a very Atlas-centric view of the world, and Ozpin had his reasons for pretending Raven did not exist. Still, it was not in her best interests to tell Emma that, so she would continue to damn Moriarty with faint praise and point out his political manoeuvrings.

Okay. Emma was tired. It was best if she left talking about meeting with Lilian and Pink and her time in Watanabe County until tomorrow. She did need to confirm one more thing first. Who would Emma choose as the next Maiden if she died?

She refilled the mugs and then asked. "I watched the fights between Winter Schnee and the competitors from Haven in the Vytal Festival. I thought the best fight was the semi-final match. Do you agree?"

The young woman looked relieved to be asked that question. "Oh yes. She is the best fighter in our year."

Oh, crap. Raven had learnt enough psychology to know that she needed to keep Emma alive or at least not be responsible for killing her. It was clear that Emma had transferred her admiration (and perhaps more) from her team leader to Amber Arc.

Amber Arc had forced Winter Schnee to use glyphs and summon her dead Grimm enemies to beat her. Even then, she had fought until the end. After the fight, when the two bowed to each other, the lip readers spotted the tall blonde asking Winter why she had killed a flock of baby birds in preparation for the fight. Winter had taken the bait and said, "They were Nevermore," with a look of outrage on her face.

If Amber Arc was told by the voices of Gwendolyn Fitzroy and Emma that Raven had killed Emma in her sleep, she could easily be manipulated by James Moriarty to go after Raven. Remnant, he might have to hold her back until he could get her enough support. Killing a Maiden may even persuade Lady Fria to use her influence to get Atlas to support a "police action" without extorting a huge price.

She needed to work out how to keep Emma alive and hide from her that, over the next year and a half, she was planning to conquer Kuroyuri province. No, not even this girl was that stupid. Raven would need to convince her that it was in the interests of Kuroyuri that she did so. She smiled. Perhaps what the woman had heard in Watanabe might help her push on an open door. Besides, after a few weeks, a carefully curated tour of the Branwen Protectorate would convince her that Raven was the best option for the people of Western Mistral.

"Emma – Debbie – I want you to stay with the tribe and help deal with the Grimm in this part of Mistral. Let's talk some more tomorrow, and later, I can show you how the Branwen Protectorate operates. I have a small problem to sort out in another camp, but I should be back by mid-morning. Take my bed, and in the morning, Vernal will arrange breakfast, and you can talk to Denise and Shady."