A forest that was not there yesterday

[unprophesied_of_ages]

The Lord Ruler is in his palace, when he sees a sight he hasn't seen in centuries. Trees, sunlight...is he hallucinating? The fact that there's a forest in his living room isn't the surprising part. The fact that there's a forest on his planet is. As soon as he walks through the door to where his living room isn't, it's definitely not a hallucination.

His stores of Allomantic metals abruptly disappear. They're still physically there, but the power is completely gone. He immediately turns to go back, only to see more forest.

At least his Feruchemy still works—he can tell because he's still alive—but that won't last him forever. He only has so much stored youth, and without both sets of abilities he can't replenish it. He hasn't been in so much danger since the beheading that one time. Returning to Scadrial is the highest and currently only priority. If spontaneous forests are a thing, he needs to find someone who can explain them and more importantly how to get back.

The next few hours are spent walking in an essentially randomly chosen direction, with the sun to his right. He's quite certain that suns are supposed to be moving across the sky, but that's not a pressing emergency. He already knew he wasn't on his own planet when he saw proper trees and plants instead of ash-covered monstrosities. Whenever he calls out, nobody responds. If it's an empty spontaneous forest, he's probably doomed.

After some time, he hears his stomach growl. He hasn't seen much that looks edible, but possibly that's just because he's not used to real plants. Berries. Berries used to exist. Those berries look tasty, and if they're poisonous it's not like he needs to worry about it. As always, he has a truly ridiculous amount of stored health in his gold jewelry. Tapping gold just in case, he eats a handful.

Comments

[imeanforever]

Where she is ensconced in a guest bedroom.

"You may," she says, "send people through the gate to retrieve food. You may perform actions intended first and foremost to deflect suspicion about my presence and activity from people, as warranted to serve that purpose. You may otherwise generally act as you otherwise would except that when governing or in a position to harm people you may not act in ways your best sincere model of me would not approve, taking into account the desire to minimize suspicion by avoiding abrupt unexplainable changes. Where will you be in about eight hours?"

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Usually down in the throne room, but that's full of people and you might want to avoid it. I could meet you back here or somewhere else if you had any reason for asking other than just keeping track of me."

[imeanforever]

"I might need to find you in a hurry, even if it's not likely. And I would like an idea of how progress on the fairy food project is coming, when I wake up - I'll need to pick up or sit on containers of or otherwise interact with it all for it to work."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Very well, I'll stick to predictable places.
If I'm not in the throne room eight hours from now, my study's the next best guess.

In any case, good night."

[imeanforever]

"Good night."

And when he has left her be, she locks the door and goes to sleep.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Alendi has no need for sleep.

Ordering Inquisitors to carry skaa through an invisible hole in the sky, so that they can collect anything that looks edible. This is probably the strangest order he has ever given, but at least it won't point to Promise. Ordering minions and servants around probably counts as governing. Would Promise approve of reassigning servants to a potentially dangerous mission in the middle of the night? Under the circumstances, he concludes, probably. She did know he was going to send people through.

He finds the order compelling him to drop the emotion bubble. Or at least, ramp it slowly down. This is terrible; there's got to be something he can do...

He notices a coppermind that he was pretty sure was empty. He draws on it, and suddenly remembers, he can use Feruchemy to selectively forget things.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

He's prohibited from doing things his "best sincere model" of Promise would do if it involves governance or hurting people. Selective amnesia isn't something his model of her would do, but it's not in either of those categories.

He remembers Promise saying she wanted to make her previous masters forget her name and prevent them from ever collecting another vassal. And he remembers her helping him get free from that fairy who needed destroying, and her willingness to take drastic measures against Yellow if necessary...
He stores all his knowledge of her incredibly annoying moral code in the coppermind, along with the knowledge that he has done so. Suddenly, his sincere best model of her is all in favor of capturing Yellow. Conveniently, that's the one fairy whose address he remembers.

He doesn't send Inquisitors. They'd be blind in Fairyland where Allomancy doesn't work, and besides, they're the only way the people on Fairyland-food-collecting duty can get there and back. He sends a squad of Hazekillers instead. They're trained to fight people with superpowers, and would have the best chance of capturing a fairy. He even has some Inquisitors lend them some Hemalurgic spikes before flying them through the gate.

Shortly afterward, his minions return with a bound and gagged Yellow. Once they've locked his former master in a dungeon and force-fed him something suitably unpalatable, Alendi walks in to the cell and says, "You are going to remove all orders from me."

[alicornucopia]

"Mmf!" says Yellow.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"I'm going to assume that was a 'yes, Lord Ruler.'" Alendi takes off the gag. "After you've removed all orders, I am going to test a method of permanently killing fairies. Scientific curiosity, you understand."

He burns zinc, brass, and atium. It's expensive, but Yellow is likely to be about to give him the best reaction anyone ever has.

[alicornucopia]

"Release me at once!" exclaims Yellow.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"No."

(Burning atium lets the Allomancer see what their opponent does before it happens.)
(Storing hearing makes the Feruchemist temporarily deaf.)
(It didn't take a genius to know what Yellow was going to say as soon as his mouth started moving.)

[alicornucopia]

"Stop doing whatever is letting you ignore me!" snarls Yellow. "Rashek!"

(Alendi may have picked up from his exposure to fairies that using a name aloud is not usually done.)

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Tell him to shut up and revoke all orders against me," the Lord Ruler directs the minion who force-fed Yellow. "And to introduce himself while he's at it."

"Be silent, and revoke all orders against the Lord Ruler," says the man whose name Alendi hasn't bothered to learn, "and state your name."

[alicornucopia]

"I rescind all your orders," squeaks Yellow immediately, "Vahriakre," and then he starts sobbing.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"I've taken the liberty of borrowing this." The Lord Ruler pulls a small brass spike from his left leg. "You, stick it into Vahriakre's leg, right there. And you with the atrocious fashion sense, once it's in store your memory of my name in this piece of copper. And Promise's too, but tell me what it is first."

[alicornucopia]

"Her name's Alisyrrabel," whimpers Yellow between sobs.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Good. Now forget both of those." The piece of brass goes in (Rashek doesn't bother using Soothing to make Yellow not mind) and he places the scrap of copper against Yellow's bound hand.

[alicornucopia]

Yellow figures it out. And forgets them. And sniffles.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Perfect. Now forget that you told me her name, and then I'm done with you for now."

[alicornucopia]

Yellow forgets as commanded. And cries.

He's not bright enough to think of forgetting that he's been ordered to do things.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

The Lord Ruler is overconfident enough that he wouldn't care if Yellow did. Besides, Yellow is no longer his main concern.

"I'm going to need you to do the same thing," he tells his minion. He pulls the spike out of Yellow's leg and offers it to the man next to him, who does get the Allomantic anesthesia. With the Lord Ruler burning zinc and brass, spiking himself is the most pleasure this minion has ever experienced. That probably won't have any long-term effects on his brain. Alendi takes the spike himself next, and checks that the piece of copper does indeed contain two copies each of his name, Promise's, and the fact that he knows her name.

They leave Yellow sobbing in his cell, and Alendi goes upstairs alone. He knocks on Promise's door.

[imeanforever]

Promise is still asleep. She sleeps pretty soundly. Zzz.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Well, this is awkward. But saving himself, the ruler of the world, from vassalage is kind of more important than being polite.

He knocks louder. "Promise? Something came up." Eh, forget it. He breaks the lock and proclaims into the room, "It's an emergency!"

[imeanforever]

Promise wakes up and goes to the door and opens it. "What is it?"

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Take no new actions."