As you may have gathered, I believe Raven is a realist rather than a coward. She knows that any outright defiance of Salem would result in the annihilation of her and her tribe.

/

Raven, after giving instructions to Shady and Vernal to look after Debbie (the name Emma was going to go by in the Tribe), walked into the forest and opened a portal to the coastal settlement focused on Redbeard, the member of the tribe in day-to-day charge. She went through in her bird form. It was always useful to arrive without people knowing, and even though many of the Tribe knew about her portal semblance, they did not know about Ozpin's gift to her.

When she had changed back and let him know that she had arrived, Redbeard pointed out the large yacht out at sea. Merlot had said that if Raven arrived, he was happy to see her whatever time it was. She momentarily considered waiting until the morning to show that she was not intimidated by her but dismissed the idea. Even though Laughing Boy would see it as her paying proper homage to his goddess if she met with them tonight, she wanted them out of the Badlands as soon as possible. The fact that the deranged Scorpion Faunus was with him meant that Merlot's mission required muscle and that they were up to something, as she hadn't been expecting them. Malbec was due to turn up early next week. Besides, she needed to spend most of tomorrow making certain that the new Spring Maiden joined the Tribe.

Salem had a good enough grasp of psychology not to send the true believers to deal with Raven unless she had to. Merlot and Malbec were pragmatic men other than the one piece of insanity which had induced them to work for Salem. In Merlot's case, his research and Malbec's thwarted political ambitions. Neither of them ever threatened Raven overtly. Tyrian Callows was the type who wanted everyone to worship his goddess and his giggling was just plain disturbing. He liked pushing people's buttons, and there was a risk of a member of the Tribe taking him on. She did not want to have to choose between trying to kill him or being seen to back down in front of the Tribe.

Merlot had first turned up seven years ago after she had destroyed the MBAD base in the Badlands. She had been told that a man with a boatload of dust, weapons and burner scrolls wanted to see her, and she had flown overhead before meeting him. She was nervous that the scrolls would be boobytrapped. The MBAD had been known to use this technique in the past. On seeing him, she was both relieved and dumbstruck. There were probably no other grey-haired men with a robotic eye and arm in Remnant, so she gave herself thirty minutes to think things through before meeting him.

She had not met him before, but she had known of him. On her visit with Ozpin to Atlas (filling in for Glynda, who was using her semblance to deal with a coal mining accident in Vale), Lady Fria had been spitting blood about the lunatic geneticist who had started experimenting with Grimm and the fact that the Marigolds had been funding his research. Even worse, the SDC (and not the authorities) had discovered this and revealed it to Colonel Ironwood. One of the last acts of Nicholas Schnee before his heart attack. The Atlas Special Ops (anywhere else it would have been called the Atlas Secret Service, but for the unfortunate acronym) had produced evidence plausibly linking Dr Merlot to various crimes, and he had fled the Kingdom upon hearing the rumours of his arrest. Ozpin had agreed to ensure that the likely employers of Merlot in Vale were warned off him.

OK, what was a bonkers scientist doing in the Badlands of Mistral? She had reached the right answer. Who else would employ an insane and disgraced scientist specialising in Grimm but Salem? Also, who else but Salem would be interested in supporting a rogue huntress who had just declared war on the Kingdom of Mistral and won the first battle? Well, maybe there were more, but no one else would have been lined up to talk to her so quickly afterwards.

Remnant, even she hadn't expected to curb-stomp the Green and Tans so convincingly. They had just been too arrogant, and her first two strikes had decapitated them. Also, necessity had resulted in her semblance evolving exponentially. It was perhaps a problem that she had humiliated them as opposed to having just won. There would be people in Mistral City looking for revenge.

She'd already realised that she had been lying to herself and Summer when she told her friend that she would only be gone for a few months and would come back to look after Yang. She'd taken on responsibility for the whole tribe, and if she were known to have left, the military would be back.

She had done her best to make her entrance imposing, strutting towards him and his minions wearing the mask and declaiming, "Dr Merlot, I presume."

He'd got the reference and had replied in kind, "And you are Branwen, Raven Branwen?" He'd obviously seen the same James Blonde films as she had.

She'd nodded and said, "Why are you here?"

"My employer admires your defence of your people and wishes to offer you her support."

"Let's walk and talk."

They'd walked five minutes into the forest before she moved away from pleasantries.

"You're working for Salem. I used to work for Ozpin until I worked out that I was fighting a war which we could not win, merely not lose yet."

Merlot was shocked that she had known Salem's name, "I did not expect you to be so well informed. Go on."

"I'm not going to become Salem's puppet rather than Ozpin's, but she shouldn't care about that so long as I weaken Mistral. I'll take what aid she is prepared to give me and my tribe, but I know that she will be giving it to me because it furthers her ends. I'm not going to move directly against Ozpin."

He'd actually smiled and said, "How refreshing not to have to go around the houses before getting to the point." It had turned out that he was the most affable of Salem's intellectual minions and the only one so confident in his abilities that he didn't feel the need to prove his superiority in every conversation.

They'd thrashed out a deal that afternoon, which Salem had later signed off on, conceding the few sticking points. No surprise, like Ozpin, she treated twenty years like Raven treated a month and was not interested in nickel and diming.

Salem had not been a demanding supporter. Every month, a shipment of supplies and Lien arrived, and every three months, one of her minions turned up with a letter from the Queen of the Grimm, making observations on the state of Remnant and feeding Raven gossip. Salem made suggestions rather than giving orders. Raven suspected that the suggestions came from Merlot's colleague Malbec. One startling request was that she inform Team Salem if she encountered any silver-eyed people, especially if their aura had been unlocked. Fortunately, very few people outside the Tribe made eye contact with her, and she didn't look hard.

Merlot's colleague Malbec had arranged for her to deal with some of the crime families of Mistral and introduced her to the art of bribing Mistralian politicians – sorry, making campaign contributions. Her bribes through Little Miss were partly funded by Salem. She supposed that ensuring that Mistral was badly run and that its factions were at odds suited both of them. Too many James Moriarty's would be bad news for Raven and Salem.

Dr Merlot was on a yacht 200 yards from shore, but a series of flashing light signals notified him that Raven had arrived. He, Tyrian, and two minions were delivered in a motorboat within ten minutes.

She wore the mask as Tyrian stepped on the jetty and assisted Dr Merlot ashore. They exchanged pleasantries. One advantage of dealing with Merlot was that he appreciated the need to defer to Raven in front of her people. He was a supplicant asking for a favour and not a man making a demand. The fact that, within reason, she was bound to grant him the favour did not have to be said out loud. However, it was clear that he was unusually excited.

They walked into the woods, where she removed the mask, and then they talked openly. "Doctor Merlot, this is an unexpected surprise. I am intrigued as to the nature of the emergency which meant that you brought Tyrian with you."

The man grinned at her, "I'm genuinely sorry for the lack of notice. The only reason we are here is that someone is trying to break their contract with my Queen."

He realised the risk of confusion, "Not you or any of yours, my dear Raven. A human from Kuroyuri City had agreed to work for the company I run for my Queen and undergo enhancement treatment. He took the advance. But then panicked and ran."

He gave her a photograph. She looked at a red-headed man with silver eyes. Frack, she remembered the man. They had been preparing for this summer's offensive and decided to collect some necessary weapons and ammunition from their opponents. Being able to use a cleaner as a portal opening reference point made it easy to raid towards the end of an overnight shift.

The man had been the head of security at the armoury and had an unlocked aura. He had tried to put up some resistance until he saw the mask and that she had drawn Omen. He'd stared at her with the look which so many men who had fought her had given her of abject fear. She'd mentioned the silver-eyed man to Malbec the next time he visited. It did no harm to show willing every so often, and the man wasn't one of her people.

Dr Merlot said, "We enlisted him to do a security job, but in retrospect, we may have been a little too eager. His niece needed an operation, which we paid for as a signing-on fee. His sister says he was worried that we were recruiting him to work security in a dust mine on Vacuo for one of the Multi-Kingdoms. He suffered from self-doubt and did not believe he was up to the job. He also knew that he couldn't pay back the signing-on fee."

Raven bit back the temptation to say that he may have been afraid for his eyes. "So why do you think he is in the Badlands?"

"We can locate him through his scroll."

He held up his hand, "You know this. That is why you never have a personal scroll."

"Why did he flee here?"

"Because he thinks we are a subsidiary of an Atlesian Multi-Kingdom and would not pursue him here."

He paused, "Look, I give you my word that he is going to be treated as important to Salem's operations as Tyrian, and it is her and my desire that he has a long life. It's just that we can enhance his talents. I've already successfully done the process twice, so I know it works."

She weighed up the situation and decided that she may as well get points for co-operation. She did not want Merlot around for any time when she had a Maiden in her entourage. That might cause Salem to become far too interested in her. This hint at the reason for Salem wanting to know about silver-eyed people was interesting. It also gave her an excuse to talk to Summer.

"Where is he?"

"The last time he switched on his scroll, he was about ten miles away, somewhere in the woods."

"Show me."

"Tyrian and I can catch him next week. We have a mini bullhead on the yacht,"

"Look, show me where he is, and let's discuss the best way to bring him in safely tomorrow."

"Safely?"

"You never know how anyone is going to react to being cornered. Will he surrender, or will he fight it out? My bet is that he's a traditional Mistralian who will panic and flare his aura as soon as he sees you and Tyrian. I know how hard it is to judge the difference between incapacitating someone and killing them."

"We have knockout darts. Once he's unconscious, he should be out for eight hours."

"Until his aura breaks, you can't expect to hit him. Also, he might suicide on you between being hit by the dart and falling unconscious."

Merlot looked like he was going to say something but then changed his mind. "You're offering to help?"

"I know the territory. The woods are too dense to view from the air, and it sounds like he only uses his scroll a couple of times a day. Besides, my people are likely to try and shoot you down in mistake for a Mistralian bullhead. Show me where he is, and I can work out the best way of getting close to him without spooking him. Being taken for ransom by bandits is less likely to cause a suicide attempt than being waylaid by you two."

Dr Merlot accepted the offer. He handed over a tranquilliser gun and a set of darts to her. He also gave her the location of the last recorded use of the scroll. He said, "You can tell him that he will not be working in a mine but in a scientific research institute. We keep the location secret for commercial confidentiality."

She got a burner scroll and some rope from Redbeard, gave him instructions as to where he should be between midnight and two AM and walked into the forest. Once she had her bearings, she changed into a bird. She enjoyed flying anyway and could do 25-30 miles per hour without pushing things. She landed and checked her position twice and, on the second occasion, found that she was within 100 yards of the man's last known position. She'd just overflown an abandoned cottage so she was counting on him being there.

She thought about it and placed a dart on the ground in front of her. She then changed into a bird again. She picked up the dart in her beak and flew towards the cottage. As she had hoped, the windows were broken, and she perched on the frame of one of them. A man was sleeping there. Sensibly, even asleep, he had his aura on a low flare, but she was prepared for that. Goodwitch had explained that aura wasn't a total force field. If it were, one would choke to death within minutes in a fight or be forced to release it and take the risk of an opponent getting in a blow. This meant that provided the movement was slow, a person with aura could be touched or could touch another person.

She flew down and stalked the sleeping man. She decided to go for the ankle rather than the neck because there was less risk of awakening the man.

A claw lifted the blanket, and she used her beak to stab the dart into his ankle. The man woke groggily, saw the bird at his feet and laughed, saying, "I'm not carrion yet, crow."

Typical townie. No ability to distinguish one large black bird from another. She flew out of the window, came back, and perched on the ledge. In thirty seconds, it was clear that the dart had taken effect.

Five minutes later, the man was hogtied and blindfolded. She wondered how long she would need to leave it before she could produce the man to Merlot and Callows without giving too many clues about her semblance and powers. How much time would be plausible to have done a twenty-mile round trip on foot, catching the man and then carrying him back in the dark? She decided on seven AM at the earliest. She waited until midnight and opened a portal back to the settlement again, focusing on Redbeard. She first only had it open an inch and checked that he was where he had been told to be and was by himself. He was, and the coast was clear. She then widened the portal and called on Redbeard to help carry the man through the portal into the warehouse.

Redbeard had provided her with a futon and a sleeping bag. She told him to signal Merlot at seven and tell him that Raven was bringing in the quarry and that he should send the motorboat along at eight. She told herself to sleep until 6 and did so. She then watched the man until around 6.30 when he woke up and realised he had been captured.

She softened her voice and said, "Don't worry. I act for your employers. I've worked with them for seven years, and they have kept their promises to me."

The man tensed and then relaxed. "It's not like I have much choice."

"Why did you run? Your employers believe that you suspected that they were going to send to Vacuo to work in the mines."

"I've heard the stories that the Multi-Kingdoms in Vacuo expect you to deal with problems with the workforce and not tell them how you solve them. That's not the type of man I am. They were vague on details when I asked,"

"This lot isn't in the Dust Mining business. They told me that you will be working in a top-secret scientific research centre."

"That may explain why they were evasive on holidays. I thought it was because they wanted me to be so implicated that I wouldn't dare whistle blow on them before letting me leave Vacuo."

"If you tell them that was your reason, they may be sympathetic."

"What do you care?"

"You were a job. I bear you no ill will now that I've caught you."

"How did you do that?"

"Trade secret. My team is very stealthy."

The man gave a rueful laugh. "The other thing which spooked me was that they wanted to know who all my relatives were and whether any of them or any of my parents and grandparents had silver eyes in my family."

He then was silent, "I guess the rumours are true."

"What rumours?"

"That Atlas is funding Raven Branwen to make trouble for Mistral. No wonder she allows you to operate in her territory."

"That's above my pay grade. I can neither confirm nor deny that story. I'm a Mantle girl myself." She then pricked him with another tranquilliser dart. That was the sort of rumour which suited her and Salem. She needed the opportunity to explain to Merlot that he did not tell the man about her involvement.

Merlot was embarrassingly grateful when she delivered the man first thing in the morning, and even Tyrian looked impressed.

Just before he departed, Merlot had gone for a walk with her. "My Queen will want to reward you. From what you said last night, I gather that you're expanding your territory. My colleague Malbec will wish to assist in this process. Perhaps a few more bribes from a different source to ensure Mistralian inaction."

"That would be helpful." She had a mental shopping list of supplies and information that would be helpful and passed it on to Merlot. She hadn't asked, but supposed being an immortal goddess probably meant that somewhere along the lines, Salem had established a whole load of dummy companies and was obscenely wealthy, so she was supporting Raven out of petty cash.

Merlot suggested that Malbec would come to see her next week. That was good. She had the germ of an idea to prevent anyone else in Remnant from knowing that the Spring Maiden was with the Branwen Tribe. Well, at least prevent Ozpin, Salem and Fria from finding out.

After the motorboat had taken Merlot, Tyrian, and the captive to the yacht and said goodbye to Redbeard, she had walked into the woods and opened a portal back to the camp she had left Emma in. She flew through in bird form, checked that all was peaceful and went to see the new recruit.

Raven needed to understand two things: why the young woman hadn't tried to fulfil her mission and how the authorities were reacting in Watanabe. She couldn't ask the first question directly as the girl probably didn't know herself. The answer to the second question might give her clues to the answer to the first.

She would take a risk that the girl had been telling the truth that Wendy Fitzroy had been concerned about the Grimm's activities in the Badlands. This meant showing her that the Branwen tribe did actually protect the civilians from the Grimm and suggesting that she could help was a good way forward. That would at least give her a positive reason for supporting Raven.

Raven's problem was that Headmaster Moriarty had been right from the perspective of the Mistral he believed in to want Raven dead. Indeed, if Raven had been in Emma's position, she would have tried to do so. The girl had a problem with killing people, but the greater good and all that should have sufficed to get over her qualms. Certainly, it was an unusual Hunter or Huntress who was a pacifist.

Raven breakfasted with Emma and explained that they would cull some Grimm today and that Raven would help train her and suggest ways she could improve. She said, "I came from the Badlands, so I had more experience than most at fighting Grimm, but fighting side by side with my team of missions during my time at Beacon improved me immeasurably."

The girl had nodded. Now it was time to make her feel useful,

"I'd like you eventually to take over some of the training. A lot of my people feel happier with quarterstaffs, and I've never really understood it as a weapon."

The woman had seemed both pleased and frightened by the request.

Raven continued, "I spend so much time running the Branwen Protectorate that I can only devote a small amount to training, and then it's mostly by example when fighting Grimm. It's why I get Vernal here to film our fights, and then people like Shady can point things out to the juniors. The trouble is that a lot of the fighters in my tribe have unlocked auras and no real training."

Vernal looked up and smiled, grateful for the acknowledgement of her contribution.

Emma blushed, saying, "But I've never taught anyone."

"Last night, you told me that Amber Arc had thanked you for the help you'd given her teammate before the Vytal Festival. You strike me as a woman who considers sharing her knowledge part of her duty."

The young woman couldn't make eye contact but gulped and nodded.

Raven looked at her. "In my team, Taiyang and Qrow were more natural trainers than I was. Summer told me that it was partly because fighting came too easily to me for me to tell them how to correct the basic errors or unlock their mental blocks. Think about it, but I suspect you will be good at it, especially with the youngsters."

She then changed the topic of conversation, and as promised last night, Emma discussed her time in Watanabe. Major Verdi was in military liaison, which, according to the Headmaster, was a cover for military intelligence. He had worked with the Headmaster fifteen years ago as a senior NCO and became an officer because of the Headmaster's sponsorship. He was in his late fifties.

Major Verdi was grateful to the Headmaster and spoke warmly about the experience. She told him that the Headmaster was concerned that Raven Branwen was planning something and wanted to know the rumours. Major Verdi had preened himself and had spoken to her about the situation in Watanabe specifically and in Kuroyuri province generally. He assumed that she would pass on the information to the headmaster. Emma would instead use it to decide how best to enter the Badlands.

They had been speaking for thirty minutes when he received an emergency call on his scroll. He apologised, took the call, swore, and then showed her a photo showing eight men walking into town without trousers, their hands tied behind their backs, and placards around their necks showing a large black bird. He instructed the police to find the men some trousers and bring them to the Town Hall ASAP.

He had then laughed. "Commander Moriarty always had a sixth sense for trouble." He explained to Emma that the men were tax collectors and their escorts. They had been collecting taxes from a Faunus village just inside Watanabe County when they had been ambushed by Raven Branwen and some of her Tribe.

Emma had sat in on the meeting with the tax collectors, where it was clear that although upset and humiliated, they had not been injured. They reported that the villagers had been happy to join in with the Branwen Tribe's jeering of them and did not seem that upset about being taken over by a bandit tribe.

In the afternoon, a meeting was held at the Town Hall. Major Verdi, the local police chief, the Mayor of Watanabe, and the president of the Watanabe local chamber of commerce were joined by the chief of the Kuroyuri province Local Grimm Defence Force, the colonel in charge of the military forces in Kuroyuri province, and a representative of the governor who had taken a bullhead from Kuroyuri.

Major Verdi explained that Emma (although he did not use her name but gave her a codename) was one of the Headmaster's protegees and would report back to the Headmaster. The Headmaster had anticipated problems in Watanabe and was afraid that Mistral City did not understand the realities of life near the Badlands. She doubted that the Headmaster had expected that the Branwen Tribe would be taking over a village in Kuroyuri Province, but Major Verdi trusted in his old commanding officer's prescience and was determined to show her how bad things were out here.

To her surprise, everyone at the meeting accepted this and thought it was a good idea. Major Verdi had thought it would work because the Headmaster had been respected here when he had dealt with their local bandit problem thirteen years ago. In addition, most people around the table thought Mistral City did not care about them or what happened here and would welcome any sign of interest.

The Governor's representative asked what the Colonel proposed to do about the incursion.
The Colonel said that the road to the village was narrow and went through forests and mountains. There were plenty of opportunities for an ambush or the use of Dust IEDs, and he was not going to give orders that his NCOs would not obey. Sending his troops into a death trap was such an order. Perhaps some Elite commandos would stand a chance, but the rank and file were conscripts and were scared of Raven Branwen's name. Major Verdi confirmed that this had happened during the last military attempt to teach the Branwen Tribe a lesson.

The Colonel then said that he wasn't going to send any military bullheads because the Branwen Tribe had stolen the province's stockpile of surface-to-air missiles and the weapons which fired them. They had sacked the person in charge of security, but the fact was that he had to assume that they were waiting to shoot down any bullhead.

The Mayor suggested that bandits were unlikely to be that well trained in using the weapons, to which the Colonel replied, after looking at Major Verdi, that he wasn't going to take the risk. People who underestimated the Branwen Tribe tended to come home in body bags.

The Local Grimm Defence Force commander said that, despite the mask, Raven Branwen was not a Grimm, so he wasn't sending his men to the village, and the hunters would not face the Branwen Tribe anyway. The army was welcome to borrow a bullhead, provided it indemnified the LGDF in case it was shot down.

He defended the decision not to send a bullhead with an LGDF detachment when the village had complained about the increased levels of Grimm. The villagers were a group of whinging Faunus, and the cost of sending a team out there for a week would have blown a hole in his budget. Major Verdi "reminded" him that he had known the tax collectors were going to the village, and he had asked them to report on the Grimm situation on their return. The man took his cue and said that if they had confirmed that there was a problem, he would have talked to the governor and obtained funding to intervene.

The police chief wanted to arrest the local troublemakers to prevent them from providing aid to Raven Branwen. Major Verdi elicited that the local troublemakers consisted of most of the young Faunus men in town and, with the help of the Mayor, dissuaded the man from doing this. The last thing that was needed was to raise tensions in Watanabe. The Governor's representative said that seemed the wisest course of action.

The Mayor then asked what the cost of a mission to retake the village would likely be. The Colonel quoted a figure for sending in the Elite commandos, which the mayor said was about 200 years' worth of the village's tax revenues.

The Colonel added that his standing instructions were that the army would look to recover 80% of that cost from Kuroyuri province and that Watanabe County would be expected to pick up the lion's share of that cost. That caused silence from around the table.

The police chief said he didn't think the people of Watanabe County would support that sort of expenditure to recover a village that was 90% Faunus and which hardly anyone knew existed, let alone visited. Everyone seemed a little embarrassed at the honesty but did not dispute the analysis.

The Governor's representative said that the governor would not want to be seen abandoning any part of the province but would not second-guess the Colonel's analysis of the military risks of using their existing forces to recapture the village, especially if the Major agreed.

The Mayor asked if Mistral City would fund a group of elite commandos. The response was that he had no doubt the governor would try, but speaking personally, the only way he could envisage that Mistral City would stump up the cash was for the governor to convince them that Raven Branwen meant to take over the province and that this was a national crisis the cost of which should be borne by the Kingdom as a whole.

The president of the Chamber of Commerce said that just asking for a national crisis to be declared would cause panic and massive disinvestment from the province. It would be even worse if the appeal were rejected. The mayor said that unless Raven Branwen shows any signs of advancing further into Watanabe, it might be best to regard this as just a technical rearranging of the border.

Major Verdi said that if they wanted to play it that way, the tax collectors had said that the villagers had encouraged the Branwen's to debag them. The Colonel had caught the whiff of contempt in his voice, but the others had latched on to it as an excuse for inaction. They began to tell themselves that Raven Branwen was not a threat to Kuroyuri as a whole.

Finally, the major had coughed. "I do not think that it is wise to do nothing. I agree with Colonel Blackberry that an attempt to recapture the village is too dangerous. We need to reinforce the Colonel's forces and make it clear that we are prepared to resist any further advances into Watanabe County. A lot of good men are dead because people like us underestimated the ambition of Raven Branwen."

Everyone could agree in principle on this policy, provided someone else paid for it. The people around the table wanted Mistral City to bear the cost, but the Major told them that this was unrealistic.

Eventually, it became clear that no decision would be made today. The Major returned to his office, handed her an earpiece, and sat her in his secretary's seat. She quickly found out why, as most of the people at the meeting visited him over the next few hours, and she listened in.

The Colonel told the Major that he believed no one at Army headquarters was straining at the leash to fight Raven Branwen. While the army would obey its orders, he anticipated that headquarters would be reluctant to significantly reinforce Watanabe County with elite troops and would use any dispute as to the funding to do nothing. He had bitterly said that he had only been posted here because he was coming up to retirement, and his old mentors had long ago retired. In short, no one owed him any favours he could cash in. He finished by saying that in Mistral City, they would simply repeat the mantra that the Branwen tribe didn't have the numbers to expand.

The LGDF man had thanked the Major for his reminder but did not believe that he was in a position to do anything. The Major suggested that he reallocate part of his budget to funding the extra troops. She didn't understand the references to reallocating some perks and discretionary expenditures to funding more soldiers with the hope that doing it this year would allow them to be reinstated the following year.

The Mayor said that the County could not afford any further taxation, and either the province would have to bear it or the Governor would need to persuade Mistral City to stump up the cash. The Major told the Mayor that it was unrealistic to expect all the cost of reinforcements to be borne by someone else. The mayor eventually agreed to think again but was very unhappy. He said that even if the Governor wanted to foot most of the cost, the fact that there were so few slanty-eyed people in Watanabe meant that the Governor would be unlikely to persuade the State Senators to fund much of the cost.

The president of the Chamber of Commerce desperately wanted to believe that the Branwen tribe could not expand. He said that if he was wrong about that, he was frightened that any extra taxes in Kuroyuri would cause the recession to worsen. If the army believed that the Branwen Tribe had territorial ambitions, the funding should come from the centre. He said Argus could afford more taxation in a way Kuroyuri couldn't. He also noted that the Multi-kingdoms had frozen investment in Kuroyuri last year and some were selling up assets.

The governor's representative was not optimistic. He wanted Major Verdi to travel back with him to Kuroyuri to speak to the Governor and help him refine the arguments to convince people that spending some money now was necessary. However, the Governor had a problem because the province was a net recipient of tax revenues, and it was hard to get Mistral City to provide funding. The Governor's faction was not part of the current government coalition, so he was not able to call in favours, and influential members of the government regarded the slanty-eyed inhabitants of Kuroyuri as uneducated yokels. He also shared the Mayor's view of the State Senate's reluctance to raise taxes.

Raven wondered why Emma had revealed so much to her and realised she had been disgusted by the conversations and the unwillingness to deal with the problems. This was the contempt of a woman who had never had to worry about making ends meet and for whom honour was more important than worrying about paying the bills.

The Major had been trying to persuade everyone to agree to bear some of the cost and to take the threat seriously, but no one with the cash wanted to pay for it, and those who did want to pay didn't have enough funds. Most of them preferred to believe that the threat was imaginary.

Raven decided that her plans for taking over Watanabe County could proceed. It was clear from what Emma had told her that no one in the military or the LGDF wanted to fight her, and no one in Mistral City wanted to fund a battle. The Major and the Governor's representative wanted to increase the number of troops, but it was clear that the men expected that they had time to haggle about how the cost would be shared. Raven's bet was that the two men would eventually raise enough money to bring in some reinforcements, but they would be of poor quality troops inadequately armed. The reality would be that it was a bluff.

What to do with the rest of the day? She'd spend a couple of hours killing Grimm with the girl, do the rounds of her lieutenants after lunch and then see if Summer could be disturbed. She had some news to pass on to her, and that would hide the fact that Raven would be pumping her for information.