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

[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."

[imeanforever]

Promise takes no new actions.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"I'm going to give you copper Feruchemy. You may turn off your sense of touch if you like. It turns out now that I'm unassailable, I don't actually have much reason to be cruel."

He removes the spike, and fails to use it on her.

"On second thought, you put it in. Right there; on the side of your leg."

[imeanforever]

Promise inserts the spike.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Now store my name in this piece of copper, and then give me the spike."

[imeanforever]

Promise does these things.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

He re-inserts the brass spike into his own leg, and sees an extra copy of his name in the copper. Then he takes it out, and breaks it into pieces as small as he can manage.

"And now, there's something I think you're going to want to see." He starts walking downstairs.

"When Yellow caught you, it was only by your name, right? Not by food?
You can speak freely, by the way."

[imeanforever]

"I can't follow you unless you say I may," she points out, standing still.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Oh. Right. You can follow me. Invisible, if you prefer to cast that first; there's no hurry."

[imeanforever]

She turns herself invisible. She follows him. "Yellow got my name from Thorn."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Good. Because I can't make him not have fed you, but he doesn't know your name any more."

[imeanforever]

"What are you going to do with me?"

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Haven't decided yet. You want some of the same things I do and will be much more effective if you're not merely following orders. Setting you mostly free to help my planet is an available option. Of course, so is only deploying you on specific short-term problems and routinely ordering you to take no new action after each one."

[imeanforever]

Follow, follow.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

And they reach the dungeon. Alendi opens the door, and reveals Yellow.

"And here's your ex-master. Would you like revenge?"

[imeanforever]

Yellow is mid-cry.

"No," says Promise. She looks at Alendi. "If you're ever tempted to let me go, you might remember that I'm not a vengeful person."

"Promise," says Yellow. "Promise, help."

"I can't," she says.

"I was nice to you."

"You improved on the standard of living I enjoyed with Thorn," says Promise, "I'll give you that."

"Help!"

"I can't."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"No? But you said...
Oh. I forgot about forgetting." He taps the relevant coppermind, and laughs. "That makes more sense, then.

Do you care what I do with him now that it isn't hypothetical?"

[imeanforever]

"I care about a lot of things. You could command him to seek no names and give no enforced orders and send him home."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"And that would at best neutralize one fairy until someone vassalizes him. There has got to be something more effective than that, even with all your moral constraints.

Oh well, he isn't important any more. I'll think of something eventually."