__________________________10____________________________

New Leadership
by Frank Vittoe

Sector H
Spider Queen Theocracy
Arach'Tuine

Rowen Arachnia, the eldest daughter of Phaere Arachnia had plans. She was going to become the most powerful woman in the entire Spider Queen
Theocracy. And now was the time to enact those plans. Her mother was preoccupied with the upcoming attack on Dra'Keshi space. Phaere Arachnia was
spending almost all her time in her private office sending communiqués back and forth to all the Matrons of the Noble Houses. The plans for the attack were
taking up so much time that Phaere had little time for the mundane matters of running a Noble House. That was just the way Rowen wanted it.

If Phaere Arachnia was known as the Voice of The Spider Queen, her daughter Rowen could be called the Spider Queen's Fang. The Warrior/Preistess
was vicious, cruel, sadistic, and slightly psychotic. She was also, like every other Dr'owe, power~hungry, though up till now, she had enjoyed her position
as Phaere's eldest daughter. But now she wanted more. There was but one obstacle to her rise to the position of First Matron. That obstacle was Phaere
Arachnia's Arach'Nilith.

At the present moment, the Arach'Nilith was standing outside of Phaere's office, guarding against any intrusions. But Rowen had a plan. She would kill
the monster. And she had the perfect idea.

Down the hall, cloaked in the shadows, and completely silent, Rowen spoke to two males in the intricate Dr'owe hand code.

"You know what you have to do, correct?"

"Yes, mistress ...distract the Arach'Nilith so you can kill it. We pretend to fight, the Arach'Nilith comes,
we attack it, you jump in, kill it, and we run. Then you kill the Matron, and take her place, and we become
the leaders of the Xin'Arachnia. A wonderful plan," one of the males replied.

"Very good. Then go to it. Your reward will be waiting for you."

Rowen produced an insignia which denoted leadership of the Xin'Arachnia, House Arachnia's finest warriors. As the two males left, Rowen sneered.

*Idiots,*" she thought to herself. *That Arach'Nilith will kill them both.*

The two males approached and jostled each other.

"You idiot! Watch where your going! I'll kill you for that!"

The males drew their weapons and began fighting. It was a credible performance. If Rowen didn't know better, she would have assumed the two
were really fighting. Their swords rang off of each other with the musical clash of Black~Steel. The Arach'Nilith heard, and slowly walked toward the
sound. When the monster rounded the bend in the shadowy corridor, she saw the two males, and snarled.

"What in the Name of The Spider Queen are you doing?"

The two males looked up. Their faces showed real astonishment. The Arach'Nilith was the most gorgeous, beautiful female Dr'owe they had ever seen,
shimmering obsidian colored skin, hair that was so silver it seemed to capture every color, eyes a bright, luminescent red, nude from the waist up.

From the waist down was a different matter entirely. A gigantic spider's body, eight legs tipped in sharp claws, and an red hourglass shaped mark was
on it's underside. The two males squared off threateningly. The Arach'Nilith just laughed.

The two males attacked. The Arach'Nilith easily parried their strikes with it's twin Black~Steel longswords. Then it reared up and ran one of it's forelegs
into each Dr'owe. The males screamed in pain, wondering where Rowen was. Their blood pooled on the ground. Their bodies shook with their death throes.
Then the Arach'Nilith dropped them unceremoniously on the floor.

"A nice little snack you two will make," the monster said.

That was when it felt the dagger in it's back.

"Only if you live to eat them, Arach'Nilith!" Rowen exclaimed.

The Arach'Nilith yelled more in annoyance than pain and turned.

"You think you can defeat me, Spider Queen Priestess? You are not your mother. She could, but you won't!"

The Arach'Nilith pulled the dagger out of its back and dropped in on the ground. Rowen drew her sword, Soul Reaver, and took up a fighter's stance,
whispering an arcane phrase to activate the powers of her magical weapons. The Arach'Nilith took advantage of the moment, moving in, it's twin blades
weaving an intricate dance of death, striking impossibly fast. Rowen was able to counter every strike in an equally amazing display of swordsmanship. But
that was part of the power of Rowen's blade. Soul Reaver granted it's user extremely fast reflexes and blinding speed. The blades of the two fighters clashed
against each other so fast that the noise became one indistinguishable ring. Finally, though, Rowen made a mistake.

One of the Arach'Nilith's blades slipped through her defense, gashing her on her swordarm. Rowen enacted a spell and vanished, only to appear out of
reach of the monster's weapons.

"You can't escape, little dr'owe!" the Arach'Nilith yelled.

Rowen simply said, "Die!" The dagger she had hurled at the Arach'Nilith rose up off the floor where it lay, and flew point first at the Arach'Nilith.
Rowen put both hands on her sword's hilt, and held the blade in front of her. Her dagger, which was called Soul Slicer, dove through the Arach'Nilith's
skull. A shadowy, misty image of the Arach'Nilith flowed and coalesced from the dagger's hilt. The misty form dove at Rowen, but when it met the cutting
edge of her blade, it evaporated. Soul Reaver and Soul Slicer were twin weapons, forged just after the Great Cataclysm.

"Strike from the shadows with the slicer, then the wielder's blood is drawn. The Slicer cuts the soul from body,
the Reaver will destroy."

Rowen had taken the sword and dagger from a dr'owe that belonged to House Samoven, the House that was destroyed for "treachery and betrayal of
The Council of Eight". The weapons served her now in good stead .

Rowen smiled. She did it. She was one of the few Dr'owe in history to actually destroy an Arach'Nilith. Now she had a more difficult task ahead of her.
She had to kill the First Matron of The Spider Queen Theocracy. Her mother, Phaere Arachnia.

Rowen knew that her mother didn't hear any of the fighting that had gone on. The office of the First Matron was behind a thick stone door and walls
which blocked almost all outside noise. She was almost ready. She had but one more preparation to make. She reached into a small pouch on her belt and
took out a ring. It was one she had purchased at the Bain're Bazaar earlier. The ring was a gateway to an extra-dimensional pocket. It could be used to store
items for the wearer. The "items" Rowen would store would be two dead male Dr'owe. She whispered the command word and the dead Dr'owe shimmered
out of existence. Rowen's ring glowed slightly. She smiled again.

She didn't even bother to knock, she just opened Phaere's office door and walked in.

Phaere looked up.

"Rowen! This had better be good. I am busy. The fleet has to deployed for maximum effect."

"Oh, this is good, mother. At least I think so." Rowen closed the door. "You probably won't, but you will be dead."

"Oh please."

Phaere pointed at her daughter, and her garment of live spiders swarmed off of her and crawled toward Rowen.

"Hold!"

At Rowen's command, the swarm of spiders stopped.

"Mother, I may not be able to make them harm you, but they won't harm me either."

Phaere then gripped her hand crossbow, Venom, and shot a bolt at Rowen. The Warrior/ Priestess dodged out of the way. Phaere took advantage of
the distraction.

"Arach'vel, nintak loom!"

Webbing shot from the First Matron's fingertips and pinned Rowen to the floor. But Rowen was nothing if not resourceful. She cast the same spell she
used against the Arach'Nilith, vanishing out of the webs and reappearing behind her mother. She hurled Soul Slicer with deadly accuracy, slicing into her
mother's shoulder. Phaere screamed with pain and anger, and turned to face her daughter.

"You are going to pay, dear daughter. I will rip the skin from your muscles and sprinkle you with salt.
You will feel great pain before I sacrifice you to the Spider Queen."

Phaere then used a combination of psionics and clerical magic to pin Rowen against the wall, immobilizing her. Rowen snarled, angry at this turn of events.
She hadn't come this far only to die. She said a silent prayer to The Spider Queen, channeling the power of the Dr'owe goddess. Phaere's hold was broken,
and Rowen fell to the floor. She rolled, only to find the First Matron standing over her, a knife poised to strike. Rowen, her reflexes enhanced by Soul Reaver,
was quicker. She rammed her blade into Phaere's stomach, up to the hilt. The blood of the First Matron ran over her hand, and formed a pool on the floor.

Phaere gasped, her eyes wide with disbelief. How could this happen? She was the most powerful Dr'owe in the entire Spider Queen Theocracy. This
was impossible.

"Ro... Rowen...You may...... win this day..... b b but I will not be defea... defeated so... easily!
You...you will... pay for this treachery! Mark my words, daughter, YOU WILL PAY!"

Phaere's body slumped against the hilt of Rowen's sword, and Rowen lifted her foot and kicked the limp form of the dead Dr'owe female off the blade,
and let the body fall to the ground.

"Somehow, 'dear' mother, I doubt that!"

Rowen smiled. She had succeeded. Phaere Arachnia was dead. She was First Matron.

Not one to waste time, Rowen spent only a moment savoring her victory. She used her ring to pull the two dead male Dr'owe from the extra-dimensional
pocket, and arranged the scene to appear as if she had been wounded defending her mother. She then walked over to Phaere's desk and turned on the communications system.

"Help! They've killed the Matron! They've killed my mother! Help! Send the Xin'Arachnia!"

Barely seconds later five Xin'Arachnia warriors appeared running through the door of the office.

"What happened, Mistress Rowen?" their leader, a lieutenant, gasped, winded from the run through the compound's corridors.

"I walked in to speak to my mother, and found her fighting these two" Rowen indicated the dead males.

"She looked at me and said call for help. They stabbed her when she looked away from them. I got angry, and I killed them."

Tears flowed from Rowen's eyes, though every Dr'owe knew that Rowen Arachnia had little real emotions, and anything resembling love was not
among them.

"I see" the lieutenant said. He thought for a moment. He was Dr'owe after all, and knew exactly what had happened. It happened almost exactly the
same way when Phaere Arachnia had become First Matron. Then he and his fellows knelt before her.

"Reign long, Rowen Arachnia, Matron of House Arachnia. The Xin'Arachnia serve you, and only you."

The Xin'Arachnia waited a moment to see if the new Matron had any orders for them, and then left.

Rowen just laughed.