"How long does it take for the eggs to mature?" Entoma asked while she looked over the slab where the Queen once sat. 'Thank you Library of Ashurbanipal, and thank you, Sherlock Holmes and Dee Renjie…' Entoma thought to herself as she crouched down to look closer, all of her eyes sweeping over the stone surface.
"Months for the larger soldier class. But weeks for the workers." Their guide explained.
"This did not happen today, or yesterday, or the day before… this happened before we arrived." Entoma said. She ran her finger over the surface of the stone and brought up the golden hand, a layer of dust stood out on the golden surface. "Unless you typically let Her Majesty… get dusty where she sits?"
"Then when?" The guide inquired, his claws shook, but did not click as he asked.
"So…" Inta addressed the guide, "Forgive me, I don't have your name."
"I gave it many times, but only she could detect it." The guide explained and gestured toward Entoma.
"Pheromones. It doesn't have a vocal equivalent. Just call him 'Watson'. It's a close spoken equivalent." She said, glad she couldn't smile and give away the joke.
"That will do." The guide replied.
"Alright, Watson, could you go look at the eggs laid out recently. Put your hand on everything until you find the illusionary ones. They may be good enough to be 'moved' but I doubt very much that the magic here is good enough to change the illusion itself to any serious degree." Inta suggested, "Sanguimancy teaches us how complicated a body really is, mimicking pupae growth beyond a few weeks should be impossible for anything lower than fifth tier magic."
Watson wheeled about and skittered out of the room as fast as possible, "They move surprisingly quick, don't they?" Inta remarked.
"Yes, I can see how they managed to hold off the beastmen, they'll make good subjects." Entoma answered, "I doubt they'll fight for us, but we don't need them anyway."
"So do you have any guesses about when she really disappeared?" Inta asked, shifting the subject.
"Probably not long ago, the dust layer was very thin, a few weeks at most. Otherwise they'd have noticed during harvest when pupae no longer hatched, or even grew to full size." Entoma then went to the wall and began to run her hand over it. "Now we have to work out how they got her out… which isn't hard to guess."
"Transmute is a fourth tier spell." Inta pointed out, "Well within normal limits, but not too common for that rank either."
"Maybe." Entoma said as her hand went over the rock, "But how did they get here?"
"You don't think they're local?" Inta asked when he stepped closer to her. "Isn't it a lot more likely that this is some kind of internal dispute? Target the Queen that they depend on for their work and food, then 'find' or 'rescue' her and be the big savior who rescues everybody? Like what happened when Jaldabaoth attacked and Momon rescued the Kingdom. Or like when the Demon Emperor attacked the Holy Kingdom, back when you were still bound to him? But instead of a real rescue, it's just a conspiracy?"
"No." Entoma answered, nonplussed. "This place isn't like home used to be. This is…" She wiggled the gripping antennae along the sides of her head as she thought, "this is too orderly. Too well organized. I just can't see it staying like that if conspiracies like this were a problem. And this civilization is an old one, if they were prone to things like that, they'd have been wiped out long ago, or torn each other apart."
"I- I suppose." Inta answered her while she ran her hand along the wall. "That leaves outsiders, but we know it wasn't us. Who does that leave?" She asked.
"Agante holdouts or the Devor. And this is a long way from any Agante remnants, I'm guessing." Inta answered.
"What about the other Kingdoms?" Entoma suggested.
Inta chuckled, "Do you really picture them wanting a place like this? The beastmen have races that would find this place ideal, the others don't."
"What if the point wasn't to hurt the Chasm… but that was just a bonus? What if what they wanted, was the ants themselves as both labor and a food supply?" Entoma asked the question rhetorically, but Inta answered anyway.
"Do the Devor actually need any of that?" Inta asked her and glanced back at the passage, there was no noise of the return yet, they were alone. But still he'd whispered it close to her.
"Need? No. But Lord Ainz didn't 'need' me either. Or any of my sisters. He took us from Jaldabaoth because we were useful. Because we added to his power, because every difference in power is a little bit greater certainty that you will be able to win if you're challenged. The Tlalmok Civil War is all but over, and their next God-Emperor is supposedly a mad fool. The Devor may be worried about food supply, trade, a labor force. The Triumvirate member states need each other. If one of them falls apart? No. The Devor would protect themselves against that. An unlimited self replicating fighting, labor, and food source right on their border? And they could get rid of an enemy? What would you do?" She asked.
The golden hand pulsed while Inta fell quiet behind her, "They tunneled in, fifth tier magic." Entoma said and pulled her hand away from the smooth wall.
"Why do you say fifth, did the hand tell you that?" Inta inquired.
Entoma shook her head, "No, nothing like that. If it were any higher, then there wouldn't have been any trace of magic left for me to find. I still can't detect sixth tier or higher with this, it's only a prototype. So if I detect anything, it has to be fifth tier or lower."
"I see. So… Lady Ambassador," Inta said with the trace of a smile on his face as he clapped his hands together and rubbed them with anticipation, "what do we do?"
It was at that moment that Watson returned through the passage, his tail swishing wild back and forth. "The illusions begin from trenches filled three weeks ago. What… what do we do? We can go without food for a long time, but not forever…?"
"What do we do?" Entoma answered and spun around to face him, "That's obvious, Watson. We go and find the Queen."