'Be okay… please be okay… don't be dead…' The nagging consciousness of the living blood frenzied as it carried her far out of view. 'We were too arrogant… too proud! We should have known they would have some form of security specializing in arachnid beings, especially there! Stupid mistake!' He cursed himself even worse than the beastmen responsible for her injuries. 'You were supposed to be her bodyguard! Even if it was just supposed to be a fun getaway with a serious side, you should never have allowed them to separate you!' Fool!' He cursed himself again and again while he sought somewhere secure.
What he found was a small oasis, a pool of water the size of a public bath, with only a small island in the center with a giant cactus swaying in the breeze.
The bloody form he took, dove for the waters. It was a principle of magic tracking that water would kill the spell's ability to follow someone, they would have to be tracked again with a second spell and a fresh of theirs would need to be used to track them again. Of course he knew that 'higher' level spells at the seventh tier and above could override that restriction, but he had confidence that there were no casters or items of that tier so close to the desert.
So it was with confident urgency that he splashed down into the water, briefly submerging himself and his charge, and then reforming himself into his natural body. Entoma was cradled limp and unconscious in his arms, her shell was ripped away in multiple places, and his best efforts with his blood only proved the limits of his skill as a healer.
The pink flesh beneath her shell was so… 'Soft…' He thought as he inspected the wounds, it was hard to believe how much so, like warm grass in high spring that he vaguely recalled laying down on. 'Someone… I think someone was with me then. Or… someone else, was it? I-?' He shook off the ghost of a memory and laid Entoma down on the sand with tender slowness.
"Bug Armor." He uttered the command, he couldn't use Entomancy, however the fact that Entoma had given him that herself, he hoped, would lead to a response, particularly as he intended them to cover her and her wounds.
It worked, the flow of crawling legs by the thousand swept over his body and then flowed like a river of red and black down the length of his arm, over his hand, and onto her body. "It's not exactly a bandage, but it will have to do." Inta said to her unconscious body as the bugs' convex bodies joined together and acted as replacement shells for the injured places.
She winced a little, 'Hard outer shell, soft inner flesh… she's a walking metaphor for herself.' Inta said and leaned over, he kissed a bit of exposed forehead and then sat up and looked over his shoulder, the town was a long, long way from where he was now, though they might have his direction, that was all. 'What about Watson? He got us in, just like he said he would, but we escaped… will they blame him for that or…?'
He swallowed the lump in his throat, the scorpionman was no friend of theirs, they felt nothing for each other, but getting them in that way was brave and clever. 'I hope he's alright too.' It was a passive, indifferent kind of hope, rather than personal, but it was genuine, and Inta narrowed his focus on the distant dot, even with his vastly superior vision, it was barely visible. 'Wait… that has to have been the strongest sanguimantic spell I've ever used… how did I get so much blood… why did it feel so natural…?' He pressed a hand to his forehead, a throbbing pain began to pulse and refused to leave him be.
It pounded like a wardrum, or like a desperate madman pounding on a door that would not break down. But when Entoma stirred, even ever so slightly, the pain and the thoughts that spawned it were gone and he was searching for any sign of pain, discomfort, or awareness.
"Inta?" Entoma asked as if she'd forgotten his name, her voice, weary, weak, uncertain. His palms wrapped around her golden hand.
"Yes, yes we made it out, it's me, it's fine, everything is just fine as long as you don't move and-" He stopped speaking when she stiffened as her memory returned.
"They shelled me… they cut off my shell… pried it off like the lid of an ale cask! We failed… no. No… you protected me. You rescued me. You succeeded. I failed." Her body felt like it was on fire in the places where her shell had been removed, but worse than that… 'I failed him… if they're not convinced of our strength then they won't support us against the beastmen, and all we did was fail and run away!'
"Forgive me, but I- I don't feel like I'm very successful. The woman I love lies cut open beside me… how can any man call that a success?" He asked her, and her red eyes sparkled.
"The woman you love? You've never said that before." She whispered.
"I never thought I was going to lose you, before." He answered, his eyes never once drifting from hers. "I know I don't have much to offer, I'm just one teacher out of thousands in the Empire. I was an outcast for just existing, until His Majesty's revolution and amnesty… and I'm a killer, I spent over a century preying on people. But you're my Entoma… at least… I dare call you that. If-If you don't object."
"A man isn't supposed to propose when he has his woman at a disadvantage… you're a real pain." Entoma said and winced a little in spite of herself, but her golden fingers squeezed his palm in return. "But." She added.
"But?" He pressed.
"But you're my pain, and I wouldn't be happy without you around…" She answered him, and went utterly limp.
"That sounds like a yes?" He lightly pressed the question, a hint of uncertainty in his voice when he squeezed her palm again.
"Because it was. Is. You know what I mean!" Entoma gasped and then let go of his hands to reach for her now armored leg.
"Yes," Inta said, "but I also know you haven't failed. Not yet."
"I-I haven't?" Entoma gasped and her body went stiff, she tried to sit up, wincing as she tried to use her arms until his hand rested against her chest, pressing gently back down to urge her to relax.
"No, not yet. If we just rescue the Queen, we'll win over the father and mother. Plus, you gathered intelligence about their countermeasures, you know they're prepared for insectoid beings but nothing else, at least here. And," he patted her chest with a smirk on his face, "you know that they sometimes have deep underground settlements beneath the surface. Can you imagine how disastrous it would be if an army of Black Paladins occupied a city without knowing that? Then caught off guard while they sleep… just going there may have prevented a disaster and a national embarrassment." He pointed out, and Entoma relaxed a little.
"Small victories, but I know you, Inta, you're thinking of something else." She locked all her eyes on his cocky, charming smirk.
"I know where their hideout is. Or… not where it is, but I've reasoned out its certain existence is in a very discoverable area." He added.
"Infuriating man… where?" Entoma urged.
"Here." He replied, and she looked at him in unblinking silence to wait for his explanation.