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]

"Point well made.
I'm thinking of importing a permanent population of mortals, with suitable warnings of course. Growing our own food for obvious reasons. If there's a Queen who rules by already knowing everybody's names, this might incidentally be a threat to her power."

[imeanforever]

"Why would you want to import mortals here?"

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Because unless I prevent it, my world is going to stop existing in three hundred years. And this repeats every millennium. I can stop it, but I'd rather have a world that doesn't have the problem."

[imeanforever]

"Why does your world have that problem in the first place?"

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"There's a god of Ruin, which was mostly imprisoned by the slightly less powerful god of Preservation at the cost of its own mind. The prison needs to be remade every thousand-and-a-bit years—Preservation conveniently left power lying around for this when its mind died—or else Ruin breaks free. And if the person who does the imprisoning makes any mistakes at all, they risk accidentally killing everybody with their new omnipotence. I very nearly did that myself last time.

So while I like my world, I'd prefer one that doesn't have a recurring single point of failure."

[imeanforever]

"I... suppose that makes sense. This one also has drawbacks, but I suppose a large and thoroughly warned population of mortals with their own food supply - do also be sure not to grow the food on land anybody claims as territory or might remember having ever done if they knew there were mortals farming it - might just wind up working sort of like a breeder colony with more turnover, after long enough? It could end in disaster, but so could your world frequently trying to end."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Is there land nobody has ever claimed? I didn't think of that as a thing that might matter."

[imeanforever]

"I don't know about nobody ever, but nobody remembering it being theirs so it doesn't occur to them to try ordering the mortals around, or the claim being weak enough that even a mortal won't be snared if they do try it despite having forgotten, that you might be able to find. Not close to the shelter where I'm putting your gate, though. I'm not sure how long it'd take walking to get to the noon steppes but they might be a good choice."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Noon does sound like a good choice. My people are made for warmer temperatures than this.

Mortals walking through Fairyland sounds dangerous. Would you be able to make a second gate to the steppes? A suddenly-appearing gate might get noticed too early, but I could find you in a few decades when the population is ready to move."

[imeanforever]

"I'm not sure enough that you won't get caught by Yellow or someone else who'd be interested in nabbing me too that I want to tell how to get ahold of me later. There are other sorcerers. Mortals can learn sorcery too, I believe. I mean, I could make the gate at some point in the next few decades but you wouldn't know exactly where to find it on your end."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Some nearby landmark that isn't going to move?

If everything goes according to plan, you'll know where to find us after the fact. You might want to tell me where to find your old master in a few hundred years; I could be able to get rid of Yellow and the Queen permanently and wouldn't object to doing the same to him."

[imeanforever]

"I've never seen your world so I can't get quite that exact. I suppose if you know a lot of other mortals I could try to put it right up against the base of one of those ashmounts you mentioned, maybe as specifically as 'on the north face'? And then you could just have people try to walk up the mountain and eventually one would go through the Steppes instead, presuming that I'd had a chance to make the gate in the intervening time."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Oh, I meant a gate between this end and the steppes. If gates don't have to cross worlds, that is.
Also, can they be closed and reopened?"

If gates can't be closed, then a permanent opening between this world and the one that might have a god of destruction loose any millennium now is probably dangerous. But Alendi isn't going to mention that; Promise might change her mind.

[imeanforever]

"There's probably a way to do a gate from one part of Fairyland to another but I don't know how to make one yet and I don't think I'd better risk being seen in my usual library for a long time. I can close gates I make; I don't know how to do it for any others."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Steppes to Luthadel it is then. Would it help if you got a look at my world yourself? You would also probably be safer there than here, at least in the short term."

[imeanforever]

"I'd rather not. It would mean having to hide with you while the gate fixed, and I'd rather be on my way to my new home."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Very well. I'll find a place when I'm back, and leave a detailed description next to the Fairyland end of today's gate. If you get a chance to use it, great; if not, the only downside is telling parents to keep newborns' birth names secret for nothing."

[imeanforever]

"Sounds like a plan."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Alendi falls silent, thinking how he might actually beat Ruin instead of just delaying.

[imeanforever]

And Promise flies.

Eventually she makes her descent and puts Alendi down in a place that looks extremely uninhabited - it's a dense thicket, with a gap in it apparently created by a fallen tree that has since mostly rotted away and some of the thicket grown back but not too much to push aside. She leads him through this path to a spot in the middle shaded by an adjacent, immense tree's lower boughs. "It's a little cramped, but if you stay here, no one will see you, and I can make a gate here. Okay?"

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Definitely. Secrecy is very much a plus right now.
How long does a gate take to fix?"

[imeanforever]

"It depends entirely on the harmonics of the other end. I honestly can't predict it. It could be immediate or take days." She peers around at the location, finds a stick and a pebble, and embeds them in the ground a few feet apart. "I'll make it between these, okay? Just try walking through, stick on your left, and when the gate is fixed it will take you where you're going, or as close as I turn out to be able to get from your description."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"OK. It might be a good idea to close it afterward, just for safety. Wouldn't want people stepping through in either direction."

[imeanforever]

"If it works right away I'll close it then. Otherwise I'll swing back this way in a few months or so."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"That works. I'll have the other end blocked off if I have to, and nobody'll fall through in the immediate future."