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

[alicornucopia]

He is behind a waterfall. It is damp here.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

The first thing to do is kidnap a fairy for information on how to get to Thorn. After all, all he knows right now is that his target is somewhere around here sometimes.
He strengthens his senses of sight and hearing, and takes a quick look from behind the waterfall for whether there's a convenient place to lie in wait. One that wouldn't lead straight to the portal. Zinc makes sure he'll fully notice everything within his field of vision, and chromium protects him from being seen.

[alicornucopia]

There is a six-inch-high fairy weeding a garden of flowers, and fairy closer to three feet tall making repairs to a roof on a large house with bizarre but beautiful architecture. Neither of them notices him right away.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

No witnesses would have been better. He's perfectly capable of checking again every few hours until there's only one fairy visible.
But he does have atium. He's more than fast enough to reach both fairies within his seconds of precognition. He sees ghostly shadows of them running from him, but they don't appear to be yelling or otherwise raising an alarm. So he charges.

He easily grabs at where they're going to be. Hand over the mouth of the smaller one; if it wants to bite him that's fine. Jump to the roof and do the same to the second. It's almost too easy.

[alicornucopia]

Now he's got two handfuls of fairy.

They don't bite him. Or do much of anything. The one who was fixing the roof drops her tools.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

He rushes back to the cave. Force-feeding a fairy with both hands full is inconvenient, so he irresponsibly throws the smaller fairy through the gate. Then he can start shoving a vial of metals down the other one's throat.

[alicornucopia]

The larger fairy is very upset about this but can't do much about it.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Once he's pretty sure some of the metal flakes have been swallowed, he tells the fairy, "Take no new action." He makes a mental note to thank Promise for the phrasing.

[alicornucopia]

The fairy takes no new action.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Other fairy's turn. No reason for loose ends. He retrieves the smaller one and attempts to repeat the procedure.

[alicornucopia]

It's a little awkward to forcefeed something six inches tall, but he can get the job done eventually.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

He places both fairies in the cave, and asks the larger fairy, "How can I find Thorn? What defenses does he have? Tell the truth."

[alicornucopia]

"Thorn is in the court on the mountain today," says the larger fairy. "He has a lot of sorcerers."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"How often does he come here, where can I find him when he does, what do sorcerers do to protect him? Tell the—Don't lie to me, ever."

[alicornucopia]

The fairy glowers at him, because not talking is a form of not lying.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Fine. Answer all my questions completely and honestly, without including irrelevant information, telling me what you think I want to know.

What specific protections does Thorn have that would interfere with a mortal attacking him?"

[alicornucopia]

"I don't know."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"If you tried to kidnap him, what would stop you?
If you don't know that either, when is someone who would know likely to be in that garden alone?"
This may be frustrating, but it's not like he's low on time.

[alicornucopia]

"My orders would stop me."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Supposing I ordered you to kidnap Thorn, what would stop you?"
On second thought, maybe he is low on time. Should probably check that.
"To the best of your knowledge, how likely is it that anyone will find me here in the next few minutes?"

[alicornucopia]

"The sorcerers. Thirty percent."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

That is alarmingly high. No wonder the fairy's playing for time. He speeds up his luck consumption. If he's thirty times as lucky as a normal person, a one-percent chance of being caught isn't too bad, but he can't keep that up for long. Wait, is that how luck works? Whatever.

"As far as you know, how can I most effectively decrease my chance of being caught?"

[alicornucopia]

"Don't get anywhere near Thorn or his sorcerers."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Rather than try to wrangle a better answer out of his vassal, he picks up both fairies and carries them back through the gate. At least if they do get discovered, he'll have the advantage here. No need to run through luck so fast.

The next line of questions are directed toward the smaller fairy. Just in case there's any difference in cooperativeness. "Answer all my questions truthfully, completely, and without irrelevant information, all according to your best guess of what information I want. If I were to try to capture Thorn the same way I captured you, how would the sorcerers try to stop me?"

[alicornucopia]

"Something set up ahead of time with magic," says the little fairy.