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]

She hands him a lump of chromium.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

It's gray, shiny, and brittle. Fairly light for a metal. When he touches it, he instantly feels that he could use Feruchemy on this. Perfect.

"Congratulations," he says. "You've managed something no-one else has since ever.

This would be more than enough to handle Thorn with, but of course I'll want a supply for general use. How efficiently do you think you could transmute something like this?" He hands her a piece of zinc. It's slightly bluer and a touch heavier but otherwise similar.

[imeanforever]

"It might take me a couple of hours the first time if I can keep a small piece of the pure chromium to work with."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

He breaks a piece off. It doesn't break easily, but he's stronger than he looks.
"Funny, that metal is currently more valuable than an equal amount of atium. To me, at least.

Getting to Thorn is the next question, though. Would you be able to make a gate to somewhere within traveling distance of as many of his courts as possible?"

[imeanforever]

"I can put one near the court that I've been to."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"That could do it. This metal can make me lucky. I was planning to use that to pick which court I should go to, but I suppose I could decide at random when to go to a particular court instead."

[imeanforever]

"I don't know if it will be able to influence the gate harmonics, so there will be a gate open when it settles whether you're ready to go then or not. And gates go in both directions."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"We'll put it somewhere where it won't matter who comes through.
How's your heat resistance? We could make it in the burnlands; I'd love to see someone try to come after us and find themselves in an uninhabitable desert."

[imeanforever]

"I could come up with a spell for that, but I'd have to make up most of it because I don't have any books. Thorn collects sorcerers, though, and I was not the best he had."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"It's not uninhabitable in the sense that you come through and you die. Well, farther south it's like that, but that part would kill me too. Just that it's unpleasant and inhospitable and there doesn't seem to be anything interesting in any direction.
I mention the burnlands because it's the least threatening place I can imagine hostile fairies arriving. If it's impractical we can do something else."

[imeanforever]

"Thorn doesn't have your name and I don't have it anymore either to give to him if he caught me. Why are you going after him?"

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"I don't think there was any time where I wasn't planning on it.
At first because him capturing you would be a very bad thing on several levels even without you knowing my name. More recently because he's near enough to the steppes to be threatening. And now that you've mentioned it, army of sorcerers."

[imeanforever]

"Ah."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"We could even go to Fairyland and make a gate from there to the other side of this planet, then to Thorn's court from there. Then anyone who comes through is definitely not getting to us. Can't say the same for whoever lives there, though."

[imeanforever]

"Obviously you can do as you like."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Well, yes, but I want to avoid Thorn's people rampaging here as much as you do. Would he be deterred by the gate going to somewhere buried deep underground? To a deserted and distinctly uncomfortable wasteland? To somewhere it could plausibly have been directed from on purpose, with people to conquer if he wants, but that won't lead him to us?"

[imeanforever]

"I can't claim to really understand his motives beyond that he collects sorcerers, he's very good at it, and he's more than sadistic enough that staying here with you transmuting metals all day is idyllic by comparison to what I'm looking at if he takes me back again."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"So he really needs capturing, then.
We can just put the gate in one of those hidden rooms that take Allomancy to open. If anyone other than me comes through, it might not stop them for long but you'll have a chance to run for it and come back in three hundred years."

[imeanforever]

"I can't get very far running on a 'take no new action' to which you've been adding as-needed exceptions."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"I'm going to edit it of course. Something much broader, about saving the world and not overthrowing me. Once I work out how best to phrase it."

[imeanforever]

"I wasn't overthrowing you or endangering the world before," she points out.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"You weren't endangering the world. You were giving me orders and taking issue with how I run my empire, and that's a combination that I plan to avoid."

[imeanforever]

Promise is silent.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"If I don't go after Thorn directly then he'd be adjacent to the likely future human colony, and he doesn't sound like a good neighbor to have. Unless this is a really terrible idea in some way I don't know about, it seems like an obvious decision to me."

[imeanforever]

"He's very, very smart. He is much worse than Yellow."