Kali's departure from Shriyan orthodoxy didn't come all at once--though to those who thought they knew her, it must have looked that way.
Her conviction eroded bit by bit as she witnessed a hundred injustices, at odds with her belief that the aristocracy had earned its privileges, or received them from the Powers with foresight about coming virtue.
Gentry mistreating their servants;
Infidelities and adulteries, the subject of gossip but not censure;
Serfs toiling and dying young while their landed neighbors counted lira.
As the burden of these things mounted, Kali withdrew further into prayer, begging the Powers to reconcile her mounting dissonance.
A believer might say, her eventual moment of clarity bore the mark of Ilan, Freedom, Hope-of-Prisoners, Tishara Lady Ranya's patron Power, so perhaps the prayers were answered?
A famine struck the land. By all accounts, the kingdom was well prepared for it! The collectors of tax and tribute had diligently taken the crown's share from the farms in preceding seasons, and laid them in to stores for just such an emergency. But when the smallfolk began to starve, and came to their lords begging relief, the granaries remained sealed.
The noble Houses worried about agitation from the sometimes bellicose rival kingdom Ashkarr, to the west. Rumor was circulating about plans for coming aggression, that there would be sieges, and the castles would need every ounce of their reserves to outlast the foe.
It was not military intelligence, even!
Ashkarr had its own problems with the famine!
But fear added to the nobles' greed was enough for them to turn their backs on the people to whom they owed protection.
Panic set in, then rebellion. The farmsteads took up their scythes and pitchforks and marched grimly to the manors' gates. The call went out for knights to push back the malcontents, rout them and send them home broken to their barren plots. Kali answered the summons, as all expected of the Huntress Knight, with a sturdy company of House Ranya adventurers and sellswords. The assembled knights pitched camp on the lordly outskirts, and all anticipated a bloody morning to follow.
That night, Dame-Armiger Kali Ranya donned her riding cloak, left armor and sword behind, and crept to the perimeter of the impromptu siege-line. But rather than scout their capabilities, or challenge some leaderly target to single combat, she simply listened--
to their complaints,
their prayers,
their fears about whether they'd ever see their families again.
and then she returned to her tent.
When the time came for the battle to be joined, Kali sent a request to the defenders, to admit her company through the postern gate. They so entered, but instead of moving to fortify the walls, they descended upon and overpowered the storehouse guards, and seized control of the food supplies.
Kali feared a disorganized looting, so she didn't throw open the doors--but she stayed vigil there until the Lady of the manor came demanding answers. To all those noble protestations, Kali had only these words beneath her burning green eyes:
"Do. Your. Duty."
From that day, Kali walked the path of the knight-errant.
Still Armiger!
But not for the crown!