Chapter 15

Squad Commander Arrowmark looked at the calendar in her room for the first time in what had to have been several weeks. The date made her stop and look again, today she noticed is her fifteenth birthday. She thought about it for a moment then shrugged and went back to her studies. She was in her third year at the Trueshot Ranger School. All the preparations she had made over the years had paid off handsomely. Her instructors quickly realized that Cadet Arrowmark was no simple farm girl since she was able to out perform just about every other student and a few instructors in her first year class, as well as quite a few second and third years as well. She thought back to the day that taught the instructors to under estimate her at their own peril.

The Bow introduction class left the instructor rather embarrassed when he decided to pick Tama as his target to embarrass on the practice range on day one of bow familiarization. When he handed her the bow she was to use for the exercise, she showed him what she knew about the bow. She pointed out the balance was too far towards the top, and when she strung it and pulled, she pointed out how certain aspects of this bow reduced its throw power and accuracy. She also noted the low quality workmanship from a bit of hing'ing on the lower arm of this particular bow. The instructor was very upset with her, telling her this was a well made bow from the schools own shops.

"Well sir, who ever made this was not a well trained Bowyer. My first successful bow is far superior to this," she replied. "It is in the armory right now if you wish to see it, Sir. But first," she pulled the arrow she was given and put it dead in the center of the target. The rest of the class was trying to not laugh too much at this interchange. Tama rubbed her forearm were the string had snapped across her skin. "And that class is why you always wear a bracer arm guard when bow shooting."

The range instructor took her arm and lead her to the armory. "Caretaker, I want to see the bow this girl claims to have made."

Tama went into her pack, pulled out the key and inventory list. "You will need this to access the locker sir."

That she had her own locker and the key for it made the instructor begin to wonder if he had just bitten off more than he could chew. The Caretaker lead them to the locker number listed on the key. Tama opened the locker, did a fast visual inventory of the gear and was satisfied with what she saw. She pulled out the bow, the maintenance kit, and her quiver with twenty four field point arrows in it. She handed the bow to the instructor to examine. "As you can see it is bit on the small side now. I made this several years ago to fit the size I was then, Sir." She signed the form showing what had been removed from the locker and when, closed the door and re-locked it, then she and instructor Windon returned to the range.

The first thing she did was show the rest of her group how to inspect, maintain and care for a bow. It had been in the locker for three months so she first rubbed in the soft tallow that would help keep the bow limber and flexible. Once she was satisfied that it would not crack from drying, she pulled out one of her strings, then went on to explain some of the process need to make a strong bow string. She demonstrated the proper way to string the bow and set it before use. She started to bring the bow up, then stopped herself. "I almost forgot these," she said to the class. She reached into her bag and pulled out her bracer, finger gloves and breast guard. She first clipped the guard over her upper right breast, explaining why they would all need one in time. That got a few giggles from the class and a glare from the now embarrassed instructor. She carefully explained and demonstrated why each item was important and how it would protect them from damage by their own weapons.

Instructor Windon was now convinced he had been set up, but remained silent and let her continue the orientation. Now she held up one of her arrows to show to the class. She offered him one and he accepted it and studied it carefully.

"Tama, who made these, they are top quality craftsmanship. I want to place an order of several hundred of these for class use."

Tama gave him a smile and a sideways glance, "Well, I would need full access to the shop you have here and the time away from class to make these for you, Sir."

"You made these? All of them?"

"Yes sir, all of them. I have been working in the Woodworking shop of Masters Greenheart and Greenstave since I turned six years of age. They wanted me to be able to handle all aspects of woodworking and carpentry before I was allowed to make my first bow. This is not the first attempt though. The first bow exploded rather violently on the tiller stand the first time stress was applied to it, Sir."

"As to the arrows, they were part of my later training, Sir."

"I see, these are excellently made cadet. What type of feathers did you use in the fletching."

"They all have matching eagle flight pinions for the fletching. They tend to make for the most stable flight and accuracy, Sir."

"Do I even want to ask how you managed to obtain that many matched feather sets?" he asked.

"Can you accept that I can talk to and understand most birds to some degree, Sir?" she replied with a grin.

"I am beginning to think that with you, more is possible than you are willing to let on about."

"That about sums me up Sir." Tama went back to showing the other girls how to hold the bow and never pull the string back to you, always hold the string and push the bow out. The rest of the class went smoothly for the day. Tama also noticed over time that no instructor ever again tried to embarrass her or her classmates after that day.

So I am fifteen today. I wonder how my brother is doing. He has to be driving mom and dad nuts by now if he is anything like me. Though I worry about Elder, that last letter didn't sound good at all. He is very old though, and the Greens, they are slowing down as well.

All of these thoughts went by in a few seconds and Tama continued her studies of the Combine wars that lead to their being a human colony on Luclin. So much to learn and so little time she thinks and digs in.

Rallos Zek had finally come to understand what Mayong had been trying to explain to him. He was not happy about how badly he would have failed if he had been allowed to go ahead with his invasion as planned. Now he was ready and Luclin was out of the picture for a long enough period for him to act.

The massive underground stone chamber of the nexus on Luclin is over a mile across and the ceiling a quarter mile high, arching over the chamber is a shallow dome. In the center of the chamber is a rise of about one hundred feet. Stairs go up the slope from each of the cardinal directions. At the top and center is a stubby version of the combine spires. They radiate massive amounts of power and almost seem alive to the touch. Looking straight up from the center is a hole in the ceiling. If you stay still, you can see the faint glow of Norrath through it, as it stays forever aimed a single point on the surface of the parent world.

The floor of the center is a deep ebony crystal that vibrates faintly with the power it supplies to the portal network. This is the heart of Luclin and the portal networks on Norrath.

His troops, thousands of planer beast, gathered at the Lavastorm combine spires and prepared to invade and capture that shadowed world. Even though Luclin orbited Norrath, it was kept in shadow so none from below could see it. The word was given and the portal activated, sending a mass of death into Nexus, the heart of the Portal networks.

The plainer beast are monster dreamed of in the darkest nightmares of any living creature. They are over ten feet tall and seven wide, with massive spiked and scaly arms and legs, with claws that tear through steel like tissue paper. The fangs drip an acid that even stone melts away from on contact. The eyes glow a sickly red like hot lava flowing from a molten pool. They where created to destroy everything in their path, and they did it well.

They slaughtered everybody that did not escape in the first few minutes and prepared the core by chipping a shallow depression in the center of the crystal to receive their master's gift. That act alone started a small amount of destabilization in the heart of Luclin. A massive black crystal was brought in to the chamber, they laid in the depression they had carved at the center of the dome in the nexus floor. Once in place, Rallos Zek himself arrived to activate it, shutting down the networks, cutting off the planes, the different lands and worlds from one another.

The few people that did escape to their home lands reported what had happened and armies were quickly gathered at the spires. When the portal spells were activated, nothing happened. The spires had gone silent, there normal faint glow was gone, and they could not be reactivated.

A day later a runner reported the Druid stones had stopped working and all local porting abilities, including escape spells would no long function.

In Qeynos the situation lead to immediate calls for the port admirals to prepare their fleets to start messenger shuttle runs to all regions, and they did so without question. The merchant fleet captains all agreed to act as mail runners as they went from port to port. A special group set sail for Butcherblock though it would take several weeks to sail around the Antonica continent. They did not make it as a brigand fleet waylaid them and burned the ships down to the water lines after killing the crews an looting the ships of any cargo and supplies.

In Freeport the situation was a bit more dire. The Overlord attempted to use his powers to force a portal to the nexus. It failed violently, destroying the Ulteran Spires across Norrath, killing several wizards and causing massive damage to his current physical form. He didn't know it then, but his failed attempt caused all the Ulteran spires to explode violently when the spell was reflected back at him.

The effect of the Overlords attempt did not go unnoticed on Luclin, the feedback started a harmonic resonance in the central core of the planet. Zek was forced to stop all his operations in order to focus on the vibrations and damp them out. He was able to slow them to where they were no longer a severe threat, but they were still there, and they were slowly increasing in power and frequency.

Luclin had in the meantime returned to her world and was appalled at the damage that had been done. The Vah'sher home city was a smoking ruin and the humans had been completely obliterated by the invaders. The aliens had made for their ships and attempted to escape, only to be brought down and destroyed as well. Her children, a type of vampire seeing the invasion went to ground deep under the surface. Their present safety would be short lived though.

She located Zek and confronted him. "Look at what you have done you fool. You have doomed all of us with your insanity."

"Yes, it is glorious. Chaos and destruction at its absolute finest, the death of all the mortal races will soon be at hand."

"Not them you idiot, the core of my world is the Portal transport system. By blocking it off, the power is building up to dangerous levels. And that vibration, were did that come from, the entire system is unstable. Well at least when I lose this form and return to the astral plane, I will be taking you with me."

"What do you mean losing your form and you taking me with you."

"This world is doomed you stupid fool, and so is Norrath thanks to your bungling. Sometime very soon the core will overload and explode. Even if you reactivate the network, the energy overload would destroy all the portals on Norrath, leaving craters hundreds of miles across."