Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

The White Raven 2:

The White Raven was conflicted, as she so often was over the last two years.

To most people who knew of her, the White Raven was either a nuisance and a menace to be captured and locked up for daring to steal from the wealthy, or a hero to the poor and needy who provided for them when no one else would. Orphanages and homes of widows and the bereaved across Altdorf were inundated with offerings to help them survive through the winter and beyond over the last year, and they could not have been more grateful for who they considered to be their savior.

Raven wasn't so sure about that herself.

It was true that Raven had stolen from the rich and given to the poor for many years of her "career" as a thief and devotee of Ranald, but the latest influx of wealth and influence that she was utilising within her favored city was not the result of those heists. Instead, she acquired them from performing missions and tasks for none other than the Empress Heidi Haupt-Anderssen. Who happened to be a Ranaldite performing perhaps the riskiest and largest scale con she had ever heard of.

On one hand, it rankled her that she was working for the highest figure of authority in the Empire, and the fact that her jobs for her were providing so much more than Raven's solo ventures ever did. On the other, Raven's targets for scouting, spying, sabotage and theft to "acquire evidence" were carefully selected for individuals that she would feel no remorse for targeting, and she was doing far more to change the world than she ever had before.

A part of Raven was bothered by this. Ranald was not necessarily a Goddess that was opposed to authority in all its forms. She was a Goddess of Freedom from Oppression, not freedom for its own sake. The problem was that Raven knew full well that the Empire's society was not perfect, and she had experienced the gap between the wealthy and the poor, albeit not on the side that would paint her as righteous in the eyes of her current comrades. She knew that more could be done, that more should be done, to make sure that the Empire was truly as free of Oppression as Ranald, and Raven herself, would like it to be.

What bothered her was that Raven was indirectly endorsing that oppression in part by working for the highest level of authority who was enabling it. As if that wasn't enough, the time she spent working for Heidi, the secret meetings and conversations she held with her, had exposed a level of understanding of Imperial society that she had never known before, and she cursed her younger self for her naivety. Things weren't so simple as she had thought, and while a revolution might have sated the fires of her younger self's ambitions, those flames had been tempered with knowledge and experience.

Heidi was doing far more to change Imperial society than Raven had her entire life before she had joined the Empress' efforts. That was the result of having the power of authority, and it bothered her that she had to work within the flawed system itself so that she could fix it.

These musings were not so uncommon, but perhaps she was growing to accept her current lot in life, since the frequency of her doubts and concerns was growing lesser. Well, there was another factor to add to that, that made her concerns seem trivial.

Three months ago, Raven was sent to Marienburg to meet with the High Priest of Ranald's temple there. He was new to the post, and had apparently made some significant changes that Heidi wanted to check up on.

Things didn't go as she expected. She was sure Ranald was laughing her ass off.

—------

Marienburg was quite the busy city, full of a congested sort of life that could hardly be matched in any other settlement in the Old World. Traders, Coachmen, Bodyguards, Merchants, Protagonists, Entertainers and many others wandered the busy streets and crossed the sturdy and not so sturdy bridges between the islands and districts and wards to go to their set destination day and night. It was truly a city that never sleeps.

The downsides of a city that never sleeps could not be overstated when it comes to a high speed chase. Fortunately for both the White Raven and High Priest Hans von Kleptor, they were both Miracle Workers who could briefly walk on air, so that meant they weren't held back by normal human limitations.

Well, that was what Raven would have said, if she didn't crash to the floor into a pile of crates because the gaps between two of the buildings surpassed her expectation and she couldn't cross with one step.

"Ah shit!" Raven could barely make out Hans' exclamation from her collapse position on top of a broken crate of produce. She let out a barely audible groan amidst all the hubbub and echoes of voices from the crowds, some barely glancing at them and going on their way and a few who stopped briefly to take a look before moving on. Just another day in Marienburg.

'How had it come to this?' Raven wondered. While she would have appreciated a brief reprieve from all the chaos, she knew she couldn't take a break and simply got up from her collapsed position, groaning louder as she dusted away the rotten vegetation clinging to her suit. Next thing she knew, Hans dropped down on the ground in a graceful cat-like pounce. Raven could faintly feel Ranald's presence, and she could feel her Goddess' graceful laughter tinkling through her ears, amused at her folly.

"Shit. Bollocks. Gosh darn it. I didn't want to do this, but uh… we gotta go through the sewers." Hans looked from side to side to keep track of any pursuers as he hastily explained his newly formed plan.

Raven looked over. "What? I can still go roof hopping. I just wasn't used to the skyline of this damn city-"

"Well I can't trust that, can I? One mistake, shame on you, two mistakes it's shame on me. I know a good route. Just… don't freak out, alright?" Hans' worried look at her did not reassure Raven in the slightest, but they didn't have that much time left until Henschmann's henchmen would catch up to them.

She looked over and gave him a nod. Letting out a quiet sigh, Hans took on a focused cast as he waved his hands in an incantation that was vaguely familiar to her. Some sort of modified "Stealth of Ranald" she guessed. Raven made her own quick prayer, rubbing the silvered knucklebones set into her right hand glove and casting Bountiful Fortune on the two of them.

When two dedicated Priests of Ranald work together, it doesn't take much for them to succeed in whatever stealthy endeavor they set out to do against a horde of thugs and legbreakers. Without any particular difficulties, they escaped the notice of their followers and snuck into the sewers.

—---
Raven should perhaps be grateful that Marienburg's sewers did not smell as bad as Altdorf's, but that was a relatively low bar to clear. Their current position in the Suiddock was not as bad as the rumored Doodkanal, or so she assumed, but the smell was still noticeably awful. Thankfully Raven had experience holding her breath. Unfortunately that gave her no opportunity to harangue and question Hans von Kleptor on his frankly awful decision making skills and impulsivity, and where the hell were they going?

When Raven had agreed to go on this mission, she had expected some sort of idealistic youngster who was determined to change the city he lived in, and she got that. She did not realise that the plan he was concocting over the last few months with her help was to assassinate the boss of the largest local crime syndicate in one of the Old World's largest cities!

While Raven fumed behind Hans' back, the young man was focused on the route he was venturing through. The sewers were quite large, as they tended to be when constructed by Dwarfs in a city that used to belong to the Elves in their prime, when they had amassed a continent spanning seafaring empire. That size could lead someone to get lost, so he had to keep focus to track all the marks left by his… associates.

When Hans spotted the first of his associates within the sewers, he hurriedly raised his left hand to indicate Raven to halt in her steps, which she followed. The right hand he used to perform the secret signals confirming his identity and stating her current situation. Within the darkness, Hans could merely make out the corresponding signs, nod of confirmation, and the quick scurrying of the individual he was communicating with.

"What was that?" Came the hushed whisper of Raven's voice in a concerned, slightly alarmed matter. Hans cursed his impatience in the privacy of his own mind. If he had been more careful, he could have introduced his new ally to his older associates, but circumstances being as they were, he was in a tight spot.

"They're… allies. A group working in the sewers that I've been cooperating with over the last few years. They might look… scary, but don't worry. They're harmless. They're not what they look like."

If anything, Hans' words did little to reassure Raven. Words like that usually preceded the worst of heresies, and while Raven was not all that extreme, she knew very well what kind of horrific things could be hidden behind those words.

Sure enough, it only took a few minutes for a group of individuals to come and greet them. When they ventured into view, Raven's suspicions were met.

Mutants.

Gripping the pistol she held onto her leg holster tightly, Raven's voice came out stressed and firm. "You have 60 seconds to explain."

Hans gulped and whispered a prayer to Ranald. "Their mutations are cosmetic. They're good people, people who refused to join Koos the Mutant King in the Cursed Marshes and were hunted down for it. Sister Astrid, a Priestess of Shallya, saw them for who they truly were and granted them shelter at the White Chapel until she was found out by the Witch Hunters of the Star Chamber. She gave them over to me in the hopes that Ranald would save them when Shallya could not, and I would die before I prove her wrong."

Hans' impassioned speech and fierce glare at her was enough to take Raven aback. She looked over to the mutants she had seen and their concerned looks, moving back and forth between the two Ranaldites. Raven could see that none of their mutations were incredibly significant. A horn on one side of the head, a tail, sharp claws, purple skin. None of them had any more than one mutation, but she knew that looks could be deceiving and they could have more, merely pretending to be innocent. She was torn.

It was then that the divine spark she still held onto from her Bountiful Fortune flourished within her, and she felt Ranald's presence. Ranald was not one for direct contact usually, preferring cheeky, roundabout maneuvers and games. Here and now, however, she felt her presence loud and clear, and she could see more than she rightly should have.

She saw Sister Astrid praying to Shallya. She saw the Priestess casting her spells on the mutants to see if they were too far gone or corrupted, and how she came up empty. She saw the mutants asking for salvation and praying to the Gods of the Old World for salvation from the pain and suffering that they were subjected to through no fault of their own. She saw Hans coming to terms with all of this and accepting this burden when no one else would.

How could someone rightly call themselves a protector of the innocent if they weren't willing to give people a chance? Was it worth it to condemn the innocent for the simple chance that one of them would be guilty? Raven didn't know.

But perhaps she was willing to try.

AN: This kind of got away from me. I wanted to make a sequel to the White Raven omake I made a while ago and include a new character this time, Hans von Kleptor of Marienburg. Marienburg's an interesting city with tons of potential for exploration and complex shenanigans, but it's so overwhelming that I decided not to focus overmuch on the global scale and instead focus down on a story being told. I realised the further I was getting along that I was pushing away from DL stuff, but hey, I at least hope it's entertaining.

A lot of the stuff from this snippet is either taken or modified/adjusted/inspired from Sold Down the River. The guy who was assassinated is named Adalbert "Casanova" Henschmann, and by Ranaldite standards, he 100% deserved to die.