"How?" Inta and Watson asked at once. The pair of opposites traded looks, though Watson could not adjust his expression, one thing was clear from the stiff silence of his claws.
'He's lost. He's actually scared.' Inta concluded, wondering perhaps if the word 'desperate' might also be applied.
"Do the Devor maintain an embassy here?" Entoma asked of Watson, and his claws began their telltale affirming clicking.
"No. But beyond our borders they have a town where our ambassadors visit when issues present themselves, but it is rare that we visit." He explained, "I went when I was a young warrior, escorting the speaker of the web and the chasm to inform the Devor when we had a new Webmother and a new Chasm father. We stayed for only one day and then we departed."
"Then that is where we go." Entoma said and put her hands on her hips. "Watson, take us back to the throne room."
He practically ran them all the way there, wasting not a moment more until they stood before the twin platforms of the rulers of the Kingdom.
Entoma explained her findings and folded her hands before her, one golden surface over the other, the royal pair shook with barely suppressed rage. "I want to go to the town and check for evidence of their involvement. All I have right now are suspicions."
"If you are caught, you may entangle us in a war with the Devor." The Chasm Father pointed out.
"If I'm caught, I will implicate my own Empire." Entoma explained, and a collective rat-tat-tat noise went up as the many legs of the guards and the royals tapped against the floor at her brazen treason against her own homeland.
Entoma waved it off before they could object, "They won't catch me, but even if they do, our border Lords will annihilate them with ease. If they want to die a few years early and far from home, let them. They're no match for the west, not anymore. It's not treason, it's" she chuckled, "an invitation."
"You really believe you can defeat the beastmen? Are you so eager to die?" The Father of the Chasm asked, his stinger erect and shaking at his back.
"The Tlalmok suffered their first defeat five years ago at the hands of one of Lord Ainz's servants in the east. They were humans, elves, orcs, goblins, nothing special. But they won. They won because we made it possible for them to win. There's nothing between my home and the Dominion of Aiwenor that can really stand in the way." Entoma made a flippant gesture with her hand, "I won't get caught, but don't worry, even if I do, I'm the Ambassador from the Sorcerous Empire. Not the Chasms."
"What do you propose?" The Web Mother asked, crossing her arms in front of her bare breasts and narrowing her eyes in dubious disbelief.
"Send Watson as an ambassador, or an actual ambassador, it doesn't matter what he goes there about, just send us in, I will do the rest." Entoma promised.
"Just what exactly is the rest?" The Web Mother asked.
"The Devor are an established Imperial power. That means they run on protocols, it makes at least some things predictable. My guess?" Entoma began to pace back and forth and scratched her face with one golden finger while her solid red eyes blanked out the world, and she lost herself in thought. "My guess is that we were an opportunity, that this was supposed to happen later."
"What makes you say that? Couldn't the Devor have planned for your visit?" The Father of the Chasm asked.
"No. There's no way they could have predicted this, not without a prophet of their own, and if they had one of those, we would know." Entoma insisted, "And as for spies, no, if they had magic like that, then we would have a real problem, and I doubt you and I would be speaking, Sire." She shook her head with sharp denial, "No. I believe they saw the chance with our arrival, and took it for a chance to lay the blame elsewhere. Maybe their agents just went rogue and acted prematurely. But if that is the case, then I will just bet that she hasn't been taken east yet. What we need is to know just where she's being held."
"And you think the answer to that will lie in the town where embassy work is conducted? Could they not do it just from anywhere?" The Web Mother demanded.
Entoma gave a slow, reluctant nod. "I suppose. But professionals think like professionals. And the Devor write a lot of things down, as professionals tend to do. I expect that if we're right, we'll find some written orders somewhere, and we'll find definitive evidence of just where they hold their prize."
"Why would you be willing to help us?" The Chasm Father asked, his claws began to click in a quiet, rapid manner as he asked that question and looked her up and down. "Arachnid or no, you aren't one of ours."
"I'm asking something from you on behalf of my King, something that I know requires a lot of trust… if I don't take the first step, I can't ask that of you. Plus, you have a beautiful country. I've never been so surrounded by pheromone speech or music before, I wouldn't want to see this place come to harm." Entoma insisted.
The royal pair preened a little, Web Mother flipping her hair back and Chasm Father straightening his already rigid back just a little more while his tail lowered from his defensive posture.
What she said had clearly pleased the pair, and provided them with some degree of reassurance, or so Entoma assumed when she glanced at her comrade and said, "Our people are not well fitted to most forms of infiltration. We may need help. We cannot do without the Queen."
"It may be easier to raise another and simply ration until she grows." The scorpionman answered, but then his shoulders slumped, "But if they speak the truth then war is fast approaching, and it may cross our lands one way or the other. Hunger would not serve our interests then… very well."
"You accept my suggestion, Majesties?" Entoma asked and folded her hands together one in front of the other.
"We do. Your bodyguard will go as an ambassador, we will come up with some trivial matter to address to the God Emperor, use your time well and find what you need." The Webmother answered, and Entoma bowed her head.
"I will do what I can. But we shouldn't waste time. May we go now?" Entoma asked.
"Go." The royal pair said at once and pointed to the exit.
"Watson, come with me, I need you." Entoma said with the brusque authority of the authority endowed leader, whirled on her feet, and strode toward the palace exit.