This is the penultimate chapter of the first arc of the story, and it intentionally shows a lot of different people's points of view while setting the scene for a jump in time.
Italics are used to show what the previous maidens are saying in Emma/Debbie's head.
/-/
Emma relived the moment when she had used her quarterstaff to bat the dust grenade away from her and the look of the man coming out of the armoury as the grenade flew past his ear. Next, the building exploded around her, and she imagined walking around the ruins and looking and seeing the bodies of the innocent people who had died because she had been careless and imagined their relatives staring at her with looks of blame and hatred. She then woke to find Vernal holding her tight and with a look of concerned respect on her face.
At the table in the tent, Raven sat surrounded by books, making notes in a black notebook. The mask was by her side. She looked up and told Vernal to go and arrange breakfast for the three of them in an hour. She also gave her a list of other tasks and training exercises.
The voices in Emma's head told her to toughen up while Wendy said, "You were entitled to defend yourself and that man, Joe. You could not have predicted that a panicked man would have thrown a dust grenade in an ammunition store."
The problem was that the police, who had been obeying illegal orders and trying to kill her and Joe, weren't the only ones who had died. The death toll was one hundred and counting. If only she had been more decisive in deciding to make her escape over the roof.
Raven looked at her. "Let's talk bluntly. Yes, innocent people died in part because of your actions. However, they mostly died because of a man who let his desire for vengeance for being cuckolded override his duty to his people, another idiot who decided to throw a fire dust grenade at a trained fighter with superb reaction skills in a building with half the town's dust and pure bad luck that another man opened the door to the armoury at the wrong moment."
In the back of her head, she heard the voice of Wendy Fitzroy agreeing with Raven and also the voices of other previous maidens telling her to toughen up and stop feeling sorry for herself.
Emma said, "I should have relied on the Maiden powers to protect me and the LGDF man from the blast."
"How long have you had those powers? Two, at most, three weeks? You had half a second at most to react to someone throwing a grenade at you. Even if you could have survived, you could not have been certain that the man you were protecting would have."
Emma sobbed while admitting that Raven was right.
Raven continued, "If you can't forgive yourself, then the next best thing is to ensure that you do better in the future, save innocent lives and do good in other ways."
The voice became gentler. "It may not have been what you intended, but that explosion has already saved lives in Watanabe. The rioting stopped after that night, and the surviving human supremacists fled. The rest of the town had a glimpse of the abyss and decided to step back. Major Verdi used you as a go-between to negotiate the Branwen Tribe taking over Watanabe and restoring peace to its streets without having to talk to me directly. Help me and the Tribe assimilate the town into the Branwen Protectorate and use the expertise of its citzens to improve the rest of the Badlands, and you'll soon be able to tell yourself that you're ahead of the game."
Emma heard what Raven said, and she knew that it made sense. "But I still was responsible for those deaths. I should pay a price."
"It was self-defence, and no one would convict you of a crime. You do no one any good by feeling sorry for yourself and moping. I think the way forward for you is what we have already discussed. Serve the people of Western Mistral and make it impossible to go back to your privileged life in Mistral and at Haven. Emma, the Haven student and Mistral aristocrat, is dead, and you are now Debbie, a bard and fighter in the Branwen Tribe. You will help train the Tribe to deal more effectively with Grimm."
A grim smile. "You can even help keep me honest. I've read enough to know that too long in power without someone being prepared to tell a leader when they are deluding themselves or becoming corrupt is the road to disaster."
"I know you're right. It's just that I feel I'm letting myself off lightly."
"You are accepting responsibility. That's a lifelong sentence." Raven looked Emma in the eye.
Raven said, "My team leader at Beacon found it hard to accept that you can't save everyone. It took a long time for me and the rest of our team to convince her that sometimes you have to retreat and accept that it's better if you are around to fight another day."
In the back of Emma's head, Wendy's voice said, "She's right about that. I don't like her and what she's doing to Mistral, but I respect her sense of duty to the people she rules and isn't insane."
Emma nodded and, at that point, became Debbie. "I'll do my best. I'll travel into Watanabe today and give Major Verdi the rings and papers to allow "my body" to be identified."
It wasn't as though her parents would grieve long for her. A dead heroine would be an improvement on an embarrassing reminder of infidelity who wasn't even useful in the marriage game.
Raven nodded. "Verdi believes that you've fooled me?"
"He believes I've fooled Shady and Mauve, and he's agreed not to tell Pink or the headmaster, let alone anyone else, I'm alive until I decide to come in from the field."
Emma realised that there was one question which was bothering her. "Vernal. Why is she being so …." She struggled for the right words.
"Look upon her as one of your good deeds. She blames herself for living when the rest of the family died. She despises herself for having nightmares. She wants to be like me and never show fear. That's why she wants to fight the Grimm and always tries to take on too much responsibility."
"Why doesn't she despise me for my nightmares?"
"She's seen you kill Alpha Ursa with style. She's seen the site of the explosion and heard of you saving the life of a man who was trying to help you. The fact that you have nightmares about it and can still get up each morning to fight the Grimm and help negotiate the takeover of Watanabe allows her to forgive herself for her failure to save her family and her nightmares. She knows you to be brave, and that allows her to comfort you and, in turn, to be comforted by you."
"Oh." That seemed to make sense. Besides, she needed the hugs and someone who needed the hugs themselves.
/-/
Three days later, Raven put on the mask and flared her aura as she prepared to swagger into the main square in Watanabe. As far as the populace was concerned, this was the first time she had set foot in the town.
The reality was that she had visited daily in bird form, but it was for the best if Shady and Mauve, a human lieutenant of hers, negotiated the surrender of the town while the rest of the Tribe kept the Grimm from getting in through the gap in the walls. It helped that the negotiations took place on the terrace on top of the town hall so she could listen in and watch Verdi's face and those of the civilians who had not run quickly enough when he had volunteered them effectively to rubber-stamp his decisions.
The death or flight of most of the town's civic leaders, the decapitation of the human leadership of the Watanabe PD, the loss of the main LGDF dust store, the destruction of a city gate, a 100-yard stretch of wall and a block of offices and shops had destroyed morale amongst the wealthier humans in Watanabe.
Whether they believed that the Branwen Tribe had been responsible for the explosion or blamed the Watanabe PD, no one believed that Mistral City or the Governor in Kuroyuri would intervene to save the city from the Grimm. The deceased Police Chief's propaganda in that regard had been too persuasive.
It helped that when Emma/ Debbie was speaking to Major Verdi, she had enough sense of duty to both Mistral and Raven to be an effective double agent. Verdi was able to let off steam about the pile of steaming crap he was up to his neck in.
No one in Mistral wanted to authorise him to negotiate with Raven's lieutenants or was willing to do anything to give him the means with which to prevent her from taking over the town. After one particularly irritating phone call with Army HQ, he'd even sung a song from West Mantle Story, "Officer Copper," which ended in his version with the words, "Gee, Major Verdi, Frack You." Curiously, it had cheered him up, according to Debbie.
To his credit, all the man wanted was to do his best to ensure that the town survived, get his troops out alive and surrender with some shreds of dignity in that order made things easy. He told Emma what terms he would accept, and Emma told Verdi what terms Shady was being allowed by Raven to accept, which meant negotiations went quickly. It helped that she knew that if she ignored the details of the terms agreed upon afterwards, no one would care in Mistral. Well, unless she massacred people, but she had no intention of doing so. She just wanted to make sure that everyone who she might have been tempted to massacre fled first.
Between them, Shady and Mauve conveyed a sense of purpose, and the remaining inhabitants had accepted, with varying degrees of reluctance, that the Branwen tribe was the least worst option open to them.
The humans because at least the Branwens were a mixture of Faunus and humans. The only troops in Watanabe (apart from the Major) and the surviving leadership of the Watanabe PD were all Faunus. The remaining human police had fled when what remained of the LGDF made it clear they wanted payback the night of the explosion and had ransacked police headquarters. Major Verdi and the Faunus platoon had waited two hours before intervening – after all, the police hadn't asked for assistance.
The Faunus were willing to risk it because they believed that the Branwen Tribe was less of a danger to their health than the Watanabe PD. Having Shady and Denise walking around with their children calmed them down as it suggested that what the old Police Chief had said about miscegenation within the Branwen Tribe was true.
She smiled to herself. She wondered if Oobleck and Ozpin would be horrified or proud if they could see how well she had learnt the lessons they had taught her.
Ozpin should be particularly impressed by how she had manipulated the Spring Maiden by telling her some hard truths while actually helping her over the initial trauma. Raven had been scared that the woman was going to harm herself out of guilt. Fortunately, Vernal, of all people, had identified with survivor guilt and had hugged the young woman. Better her than Raven, anyway.
The true victory was persuading the Spring Maiden that the best way to pay penance was to give up her privileges of birth and wealth and devote herself to West Mistral. After all, the old Maiden had wanted her to do the latter.
Anyway, that was quite enough of congratulating herself. Verdi and his troops had left an hour earlier through the gate in the Faunus sector. The inhabitants had given them a politely enthusiastic send-off. Shady had spread the word that things would have been a lot worse without their cooperation. After all, the troops had been Faunus, and the Major had stayed in town to negotiate.
Raven knew her role today was to play bad (or at least tough) cop to Shady and Mauve's good cops. To convey the message that if Watanabe played ball with the Branwen Tribe, things would be fine and that if they didn't, well, Raven had a terrible swift sword, which she was not afraid to use. She also needed to give the inhabitants a reason to hope that life would be bearable under her rule.
To Raven's bemusement, some outside observers had arrived to bear witness to the handover. Well, one was primarily here because of Emma' presumed death, but almost counted as an old friend – well, they'd fought in their first Vytal Festival.
Another group was led by Kali Belladonna, who counted as Faunus royalty. Kali was accompanied by her oldest child, a security detail led by Sienna Khan, Lisa Lavender, a young journalist from Vale and a small film crew.
Her ostensible reason for being there had been to bring the oxygen of publicity to the rumours of anti-Faunus violence by the Watanabe PD. While she almost certainly had set out before the explosion, the fact that she had arrived the morning after the explosion would allow the opponents of the White Fang to accuse her of gloating.
She'd met Kali Belladonna and Sienna Khan a couple of times. The first time had been just after She remembered back to the final of the Vytal Festival in Mistral. Everyone had been expecting Summer to appear to some classical music and then have a polite and technical match with the Haven contender.
The one who had conveniently caught meningitis for a year after being runner up in the Vytal Festival competition for the third and fourth years while a third year at Haven and so qualified for a record third Vytal Festival Championship. The one who had a team built around him to power their way through to the quarter-finals in the team rounds with losing a single team member in a fight
Team SQRT substituted Raven for Summer thirty minutes before the fight. The referees from Vacuo and Atlas agreed to this and also not to alert the Haven contingent. This was partly because someone at the hotel had messed with Summer's breakfast, and Glynda had already had Tsune test the leftovers and complain to the referees. The message had been either you allow the swap without warning Haven, or we formally accuse Haven of cheating. Glynda looking cross and playing with her glasses was not a force two well-respected but fundamentally second-rate men were going to say no to.
Also, strictly, the rules said that the official nomination of the entrant did not need to be made until thirty minutes before the fight. Team STRQ made the expected provisional nomination last night.
To further reduce the risk of a leak, the team had walked down together to the gate through which the Beacon contender would enter the arena. This was the last tournament before the Vytal Colosseum came into commission.
That year, it had been Professor Aqua in the commentary booth with Port. While Port was a man of the old school, he had come from a poor background, and the tension between the two men had been entertainingly self-evident throughout the tournament.
It was only then that Summer handed her the mask, Taiyang took the long coat she had been wearing, and Qrow told her, "Make him want to forget today."
The three had then taken the lift to the Competitors' Box. A minute later, the gates opened, and she strutted through them as the arena played the theme music for her before changing to the team's chosen song.
/-/
Sienna Khan was tense. Being in charge of Kali Belladonna's security detail was not a sinecure. Kali was the most popular and high-profile Faunus in Remnant.
The job meant that she was predisposed to think the worst of humanity. She was the one who had to evaluate the death threats and worse to Kali and her children. She also saw Kali's occasional despair at persuading anyone to take an interest in the White Fang's concern for meaningful change in Remnant and her anger at those who said they sympathised with the cause but, in practice, did nothing.
She had to be permanently alert for danger while avoiding overreacting in a manner that the enemies of Faunus, generally and the White Fang, in particular, would use against Kali and the "animals."
At least in Vale, the VSS were proactively cooperative. They were complacent – they thought it was enough to be better than Mistral, safer than Vacuo and less rigid than Atlas. In Mistral, the authorities resented Kali and Ghira for founding the White Fang – a name chosen to echo the Red Fang forces in the Faunus wars. It was used to emphasise that this movement was dedicated to non-violence while hinting that violence was an option down the line.
Kali had insisted on travelling to Watanabe when she heard the stories of rioting encouraged by the Watanabe police directed against Faunus businesses. She had overridden Sienna's objections and had used as a trump card the fact that Lisa Lavender, a young freelance journalist from Vale, had agreed to travel with them along with a small television crew. Ghira had backed Kali's judgment call.
None of them had expected what they would find in Watanabe or that Mistral would abandon the town without a fight. Unsurprisingly, Kali and Lisa had wanted to stay to watch the transfer of power to Raven Branwen. To Sienna's surprise, the Rabbit Faunus, with the human wife and the adorable children, had agreed to them staying for the occupation and for a couple of days afterwards. Even more surprising, he had also agreed to Professor Pink from Haven staying around. The man had arrived the day after Kali. He had looked shattered after meeting Major Verdi.
Major Verdi had ostentatiously refused to meet Kali but had met Sienna. Both agreed that it was best for Kali and Major Verdi that the two were not seen to be in cahoots and then established an understanding. Kali was to keep to the Faunus Sector and help dissuade the Faunus from taking revenge on the humans, while Verdi would use the bulk of his troops to protect the Faunus sector.
Sienna was curious to see Raven Branwen again. The women made her question whether the Belladonnas were too idealistic and too devoted to peaceful means.
The first time she had seen the woman had been at the Vytal Festival final in Mistral. It was held in the General Lagune arena. Kali had been invited as a guest of honour by the Festival Committee for the semi-finals and finals.
Kali was the young wife of Chieftain Belladonna and had been the highest-paid Faunus actor in Remnant. Sienna had been appointed by Ghira to defend his young wife and was, at that time, the second in command. Often, that meant she dealt with security overnight and at evening social events.
It had been Sienna's first encounter with serious wealth and power and the arrogance which could go with it. Lady Fria and the heads of the Atlas Multi-Kingdoms, the Crime bosses and political faction leaders of Mistral had been particularly noticeable. The Vale equivalents were less objectionable, but the two formidable and wealthy women from Vale who ignored each other despite being sisters-in-law had been striking.
To be fair, meeting one of the latter had been worthwhile. The Travers Foundation was a generous supporter of what its founder saw as good causes and included those aimed at improving access to education for poor Faunus and promoting equality.
Despite the professed aim of the Vytal Festival being to promote unity and celebrate the diversity of the cultures of Remnant, this particular Festival had been hijacked by the Make Mistral Great Again faction of the coalition ruling Mistral at the time. It was the last one before the Amity Colosseum had come into service.
The final event of the festival was the final of the competition for third and fourth-year students. Summer Rose of Team STRQ from Beacon would fight Buff Tannin from Team MSTY from Haven.
The coin toss had meant that the Haven champion, Buff Tannin, had been introduced first and had walked into the arena with Misty playing. That was a provocative choice of song even then. The lyrics were not objectionable, but to Sienna, the song conveyed a nostalgia for a past where the Faunus knew their place. The images used on the video screen to supplement the song made it clear that was what Team Misty believed as well.
She listened with increasing anger as 70% of the spectators joined in singing the lyrics with one of the co-presenters, Professor Aqua. The voices swelled as they sang the final chorus of "Look Away, Look Away, Look Away, Misty Land."
Team STRQ had also embraced musical introductions. Each member had their own song, and they then used a team theme. Summer Rose's chosen theme in the semi-finals, where she had defeated John "Tally Ho" Pink from Haven, was the classical Ode to Peace, which, while appropriate to the Festival theme, was less exhilarating.
The arena doors had opened, and into a stunned silence, Peter Port shouted from the commentary box, "A surprise here. Team STRQ has nominated the wild one, Raven Branwen, as their champion."
The video screens had initially just used the camera focused on the woman. She was wearing a mask which covered her entire face and which resembled the face of a Grimm.
The sound of guitars was heard, and a huge cheer came from the non-Haven part of the crowd as a hard rock version of "Wild Grimm" played. The masked woman dressed in red and black strutted in her boots into the arena.
In the competitors' box, the Beacon and Shade students stood on their chairs, clapped their hands above their heads and sang along. Two seconds later, even the Atlesian students joined in the singing. Afterwards, Raven joked that this was the first and probably the only time in her life that she had been semi-popular.
Sienna had hunted down the coverage of the event afterwards. There were multiple cameras in the arena, and one had been trained on the competitor from Haven. It was clear that the man was shocked. The man had been assuming he would be facing Summer and all his training would have been focused on her. No one at Haven had seen Raven in singles competition before, and her reputation had been as being the brute strength enforcer on the team in the Team and Doubles rounds. Sienna had convinced herself that she had seen fear on his face.
After twenty seconds, the music changed to Empress's song "We Will Dust You." It had been used in one of Kali's last films before her marriage, "A Hunter's Tale", where she had an extended cameo as a Faunus blacksmith.
The video on the screen started with a clip from the film, and virtually all the non-Mistral spectators joined in by clapping their hands and stamping their feet in time to the music. Sienna could have sworn that quite a few Mistralians did as well until the video footage changed. It showed Raven and Qrow Branwen from Team STRQ in action, defeating opponents from Haven over the two Vytal Festivals they had competed in. Someone must have worked hard on this video, as each time the words "Another One Bites The Dust" played, a different competitor from Haven was shown being outclassed.
In the arena, Raven had continued to strut, circling her opponent with her hand on her sword and obviously staring at Buff through the mask. The man chose to pretend to ignore her rather than keeping eye contact.
The fight, when it actually started, had been an anti-climax for fans of close contests. For Sienna, it had been a revelation. The man had been psychologically beaten before he had started. Raven had languidly spun the dust chambers and drawn her sword as the countdown reached five, and the movement had exuded confidence. Buff looked like he was still trying to remember what he knew about the woman and failing miserably. The fear of humiliation had made his defeat an inevitability.
Raven had taken out Buff with contempt in less than three minutes. She'd taken just twenty seconds to disarm him and forty seconds to take his aura to 20%. She had just savoured his defeat and used her microphone to repeat what the newspapers had said this morning he intended to do to her Team Leader while chipping away at his aura. She had been at 98% at the end of the fight.
Kali had met Team STRQ at the post-festival Ball that night. Summer had been gracious; indeed, Team STRQ had left the speeches to her. Qrow Branwen had accompanied Summer.
Buff Tannin and Team MISTY had not attended the Ball, and, instead, John Pink had attended and even danced with Raven. Sienna had watched Summer beating Pink in the semi-finals, and the man was a good fighter. However, she could not disagree with Qrow Branwen when he said that while the man was a better fighter than most losing Vytal Festival finalists in history, in the end, a man or woman who is a good loser is a loser.
The next time she had to think about Raven Branwen was when the photographs of the atrocities committed by the MBAD against the Faunus members of the Branwen tribe had been sent to Ghira and Kali. That had inspired Kali to found the White Fang and campaign for peaceful change. Raven Branwen had taken revenge, humiliated Mistral and destroyed the MBAD. She had defeated any forces sent against her, and according to Kali's sources, no one in Mistral wanted to be in charge of any new military action in the so-called Branwen Protectorate.
Sienna brought herself back into the moment. It was time for Raven to enter the square.
Professor Pink came up to her and Kali. He had been told the same as her by Major Verdi that, in his words, "I know some silly ass is up for trying to assassinate her. I don't care which of you saves her, provided the one who does tells her I gave you a warning."
Kali told Pink, "You restrain the assassin if they are there. Sienna, defend the bitch in the unlikely event it is necessary. I can protect me and Blake."
"The bitch?" This was from Pink. He was the one Mistralian competitor who Team STRQ had not felt honour bound to humiliate. Kali said that, according to Summer, the first time was to differentiate him from his Team Leader and reflect the fact that he had apologised personally for the trash talking his leader had indulged in. The second time was because Summer was fighting him, and it wasn't her style to rub people's faces in the dirt.
"I'm allowed to say it. I knew her in Vale. She is an equal opportunity arsehole."
Sienna understood Kali's point of view. It was partly personal – Taiyang, who had won the unarmed combat championship, had flirted with Kali, which irritated Raven. Most of it was down to Raven abandoning her child to defend her tribe. Kali had just had Blake, and the thought of a mother leaving her baby had appalled Kali.
It was just that, looking at what Raven had achieved over the last seven years compared with the lack of real change the White Fang had managed, Sienna could not help thinking that ruthless aggression had something going for it. It is better to be feared than humoured.
"Unlikely event?"
"She knows someone is likely to try it on. Her aura will be up."
She knew that Kali was right. Raven Branwen would not be walking in her without raising her aura.
Just then, the music started. Sienna smiled. Raven was using the Vytal Festival music. Thirty members of her tribe were wearing smaller versions of her mask, which just covered their eyes, nose and mouth. They also all flared their aura. It had been a shock to Sienna that so many members of the Tribe had unlocked auras. They had chosen strength over the dangers of being Grimm magnets.
As expected, a bullet was fired. Kali pointed Pink to where the shot had been fired, and he used his mild telekinesis semblance and horsewhip to position the man so that Raven Branwen could not miss with her sword. However, instead of Raven Branwen taking action, a nine-year-old child gutted the man with a knife.
Kali said, "I knew I was right not to allow Blake to play with that one."
Sienna nearly snorted. It had been difficult to get Blake's head out of a book to play with Shady's children, and in the end, the play had mainly consisted of Blake reading them stories. Fortunately, that had worked for both families. Still, Kali was right. There was something feral about Vernal.
/-/
Two days later, Summer Rose was putting the girls to bed when Qrow showed up with chocolate chip cookies in his hand. No doubt his semblance was behind the timing. Both girls loved their uncle and insisted on playfighting with him. Ruby showed off her cardboard version of Harbinger, while Yang used him as a punchbag. Bedtime was delayed by an hour and a half, and it took longer than normal for the bedtime story to send them to sleep.
By then, Taiyang had finished a bottle of wine, and Qrow had made inroads on a large bottle of whiskey. Taiyang opened a second bottle for her, poured himself a large glass and left her and Qrow to it. He said that he was going to bed and would look after the children if they woke up.
She quickly understood why he had left. Qrow was here to tell her that a meeting of the Vytal Festival Rules Committee had been convened at short notice by Colonel Ironwood and Headmaster Beige from Atlas and Ozpin required her presence.
According to Qrow, Taiyang had already agreed to take Ruby and Yang to various amusement parks and shows in Vale over the next two days while Summer, as far as Taiyang was concerned, bored herself silly discussing minor rule changes with the pompous and boring.
The rules committee's membership substantially overlapped with those who were active in the fight against Salem, other than Qrow. This was because, although he accepted that the Vytal Festival was needed to fund the Academies and the combat schools, he could not hide the fact that he considered it to be a colossal misuse of time and effort. This didn't matter as he was Ozpin's right-hand man and roving ambassador, so no one was surprised to see him around at Beacon. To complicate matters some of its members really were just interested in the Vytal Festival.
Summer wasn't called in by Ozpin to combat Salem as often as Qrow. Mainly, that was because she had to balance being a mother of two young children with her duties as a powerful huntress. In part, it was because she was the only person Raven had consulted with before confronting Ozpin with her deductions. This meant she knew more than the others, and there would always be a danger of her revealing that knowledge by accident. A third reason was that Ozpin shared Raven's fear that she would go and confront Salem by herself if she was too involved with the day-to-day intrigue.
She then asked Qrow, "Why has Atlas called the meeting?"
"I don't know. What is interesting is that Lady Fria isn't coming."
"Why?"
"Perhaps she's ill. She is 85, after all. Maidens aren't meant to live that long. Anyway, Ozpin is relying on Goodbitch to talk Tindick into giving the game away and me into getting Beige drunk enough to open up."
"Glynda and Jimmy?"
"He's besotted with her. Also, who else is there you could imagine her pillow talking to about what we know?"
She could live without that image, and to give herself time to recover, she responded, "You."
Her timing was perfect as Qrow did a spit-take. "No, I'm not into those types of fantasy. Besides, me and Glynda rub along OK because we don't have any unresolved sexual tension. We can respect and irritate each other in a perfectly uncomplicated manner."
"I don't need you to explain why the others are inappropriate." She could see Qrow's point without needing him to go into details.
He paused and took another swig. "That's not the only puzzle. Moriarty is coming via Vacuo, while Lionheart and Pink are arriving directly from Mistral."
Lionheart knew about Salem, but Pink didn't. Pink, however, took the Vytal Festival seriously, so he was on the committee, as was Port.
"Well, Professor Moriarty has always been polite to Theodore."
"Let's just agree that we'd both rather deal with Moriarty than anyone else in Mistral and that Theodore feels the same way. Doesn't mean that we trust him. Well, the only people we'd rather deal with wouldn't be anywhere nearly as effective in Mistral."
"Pink is a good man."
"He's an innocent, and Ozpin and Moriarty haven't wanted to put him in the loop. Besides, Haven faculty politics require either a wheeler-dealer or a dictator."
"There's something you're not telling me."
"According to the Haven Bulletin published five hours ago, Gwendolyn Fitzroy died twelve days ago at Haven."
So the old Spring Maiden was dead.
"How did she die?"
"Could be natural causes. She had spent three months at Haven before she died."
"How old was she?"
"Sixty plus."
"So who's the new Maiden?"
"We don't know. That's why the trip to Vacuo is ringing alarm bells."
Summer nodded. Theodore had resolutely refused to disclose the identity of the new Summer Maiden, and Moriarty had supported him.
She also knew this must be connected to why Ozpin wanted her to attend the meeting.
"Let's not mess around Qrow. What does Ozpin want me to do?"
"Talk to Pink tomorrow and see if you can find out any clues as to who the new Maiden is."
"He won't know."
"Of course not, but he's an observant man and teaches combat and history at Haven. If Miss Fitzroy spent three months at Haven, she would have had plenty of opportunity to evaluate potential candidates. Besides, we both know Wendy would have been polite to Lionheart but would not have opened up to him. Maybe she wasn't that much better with Pink, but he's human. He's also more likely to speak to you openly than Lionheart or Moriarty."
"So I am to be the equivalent of Glynda with Ironwood?"
Qrow was exquisitely embarrassed.
She laughed, "Just teasing you.
"There is another reason I think he may be ready to speak to you."
"Really."
"Someone sent the photographs of what the MBAD did to the Faunus members of the Branwen Tribe to Ozpin, Oobleck and Raven as well as to the Belladonnas."
"You think it was him?"
"Who else do we know who resigned from the MBAD six months before? I don't know it was, but I can imagine him saying to himself that my Kingdom right and not self-evidently wrong and deciding that that it was self-evidently wrong."
She nodded, "OK, Qrow, I'll talk to him, but we need someone to distract Lionheart if they arrive together."
"Dr. Oobleck?"
"No. Pink gets on well with Barty, and Lionheart doesn't. It's more likely Leo will latch on to me than Barty."
"Ok, I'll do it."
"Good man. By the way, what do you know about Watanabe?"
"No doubt that is another reason why Moriarty is squaring Theodore before the meeting."
"I'm puzzled. How did a medium-sized town fall to the Branwen Tribe without a fight."
She had her own theories but wanted to know what Qrow and Ozpin thought.
"If you are curious, perhaps you can ask Pink. I don't care."
"Really."
"He was there at the handover. Besides, if Mistral isn't asking for assistance from Atlas or Vale, it is their problem, not ours."
He paused, "Don't tell her or anyone else I said this, but Raven isn't a sociopath. Ruthless and vindictive to her enemies, yes. Causing pain to civilians for no good reason, no."
Summer laughed, "Tell me something I don't know."
"OK. I don't believe that, for the time being, the average West Mistralian will be worse off under Raven than the Mistral government. I can believe that she isn't skimming off the top and living in luxury, and she is a lot less corrupt than the average Mistral aristocrat. I've advised Ozpin that we leave Mistral and Raven alone."
"I can hear a but lurking."
"Sooner or later, she will turn into Lady Fria."
Summer took a deep intake of breath. Qrow was sharing something with her that he had probably not even said to Ozpin.
"I think I know what you're getting at, but can you say more?"
"She'll have been right so often she won't have any self-doubt or recognise that things have changed. No one in the tribe will dare challenge her or even ask the right questions to make her think things through."
Qrow was right about Lady Fria. She was so convinced that the Atlas way was so self-evidently right that she didn't address other people's doubts properly any more.
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I think it is in order to say that the White Fang copied Raven rather than the other way around regarding the Grimm Masks. Sienna must also have a good reason to split from the Belladonnas and I prefer to see it as a decision which she found difficult.
The next chapter will be a short one dealing with the meeting in Vale and Team Salem's reactions to what happened at Watanabe.