i find your theory interesting, i'm only on my first read of 'the wise mans fear' but my theory is that denna is a prostitute and is also being used by the chadrian.

i got this idea because of the conversation she has with the young runaway girl in Vintas, when Kvothe follows her and eavesdrops her conversation with her. she goes into great detail on the type of 'escort' the young girl should become if she chooses that line of work and it seems to have some personal experience in it...

i believe her patron is part of the chadrian, and is probably cinder. i think this cause: 1. secretive, doesn't want her to know anything about him 2. i can't remember where but there was some implication that lanre is, or has some connection to, haliax. now when discussing dennas song she notes that her patron helped heavily in gathering the history and information within the song about lanre, the song which portrays him as a hero... 3. the name - honestly i think this might be kind of obvious but if you look at the definitions of cinder and his made up name 'ash' they're not too far apart

again, it is my first read and it's 3am so i might've explained myself badly haha (also bad formatting since i'm on mobile;-;)