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]

"Garden sounds visible. Cave behind the waterfall?"

[alicornucopia]

"That wouldn't help very much."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Just do it here, then; I'm not in much of a hurry." He reconsiders whether he wants a potentially hostile sorcerer to get familiar enough with anything on this side of the gate. "On second thought, yes, let's go do it in the garden." She did suggest it while under an order to keep him secret, after all.

[alicornucopia]

They go out in the garden. Clock and Rosewood are continuing to go about their business as instructed.

Verve focuses on him.

Presently he is invisible, inaudible until he speaks, unsmellable, and worn on Verve, who flies into the air.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Alendi has empty metalminds of any type likely to be useful. He can stay light for ages. He is, however, wishing he had thought to ask how long "ages" was likely to be.

[alicornucopia]

It takes Verve six hours to land.

When she does land, she does so in a secluded area, takes off the backpack with Alendi attached to it, advises him to step as lightly as possible, reminds him not to speak, and then successfully distracts various sorcerers between this area and a door to a library. She ushers him under a chair and reminds him that Blossom may take some time to arrive alone and is more likely to come with Thorn on any given visit.

And then Verve leaves.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Alendi can wait. He can slow down his body and his mind, so it doesn't have to be several days for him. Hunger becomes inconvenient, but can't actually hurt him as long as he has charged gold. Any time he's nervous about a sorcerer noticing him to be willing to spend resources faster, he doesn't even need to breathe. And he has extra luck when needed, of course.

It's still boring.

[alicornucopia]

Blossom comes in with other fairies - she doesn't address them by name so it's not clear if any of them are Thorn - and then after he has been under the chair for forty-seven hours, she comes in by herself, shuts the door, and peers at books.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

This looks like a good time to use lots of luck. And everything else, while he's at it. Even normally useless things like warmth; if his hand is unexpectedly hot it might help distract her, and it's not like it costs him anything.
He waits until Blossom is nearby, then burns atium and charges out from under the chair.

He aims to ram an open vial down where her throat is going to be. She can choke on the glass for all he cares, but he's making sure some of its contents are getting down.

[alicornucopia]

Blossom's reaction time is not good enough to stop him. She chokes on glass.

Her next action is to do - something that sets up a loud reverberating hum through the whole building.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

This could be a problem. The next part of the plan depended on interrogating her somewhere safe.
"Quiet! Answer anything I ask truthfully and completely, nothing irrelevant. And quickly. What did you just do?"

[alicornucopia]

She's still got a vial of glass down her throat that she's trying to cough up, and hasn't been told to take no new action. Alendi is now on fire.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

He ignores it. Just switches from making himself hotter to colder, and heals anything that needs healing.

"Don't do anything I don't tell you to do. Now answer me!"

[alicornucopia]

She stops trying to cough up the glass vial.

A voice emanates from the ceiling.

The voice says, almost languidly:

"Stop."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Alendi stops.

Stops fighting Blossom, stops using magic, stops breathing. Now the being-on-fire-part is suddenly really painful, but he can't react.

[alicornucopia]

The door opens, and in walks a fairy. He's about Blossom's height, green and white, with wings like porcelain knives and claws on his fingers and an almost lupine face.

"Blossom, don't let him inconvenience you."

Blossom spits out the vial at last.

"Put him out."

Alendi is no longer on fire.

Thorn walks over to Alendi.

"A mortal," he muses. "I suppose I could kill him."

"Hurt him first, Master," says Blossom, hissing.

Thorn runs his claws through her hair. "That goes without saying." He regards Alendi. And then, lightly, like it barely matters, to Alendi: "You may do exactly and only this: speak without omission, enforcement, trick, or other extraneous component a sincere and genuine reason I might not want to torture you to death for inconveniencing my Blossom."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Does the order to speak let him inhale? No, it doesn't. "I could get you a kingdom's worth of vassals," Alendi squeaks out.

[alicornucopia]

"That's mildly interesting," says Thorn, ignoring Blossom's hiss. "For the next thirty seconds only you may, taking no opportunities to do anything I might disapprove of, breathe. Blossom, go make yourself presentable."

Blossom leaves.

"Tell me what you're thinking," Thorn says to Alendi.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"That I'm glad I can breathe now.
And that I'd very much hope you don't do anything irresponsible with my kingdom because without me in charge the world might stop existing soon.

[alicornucopia]

"Explain."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"There's an imprisoned entity, essentially a god. If it gets out, it destroys my world. It probably can't get to this one without a gate. It has to be re-imprisoned every thousand years. I did it last time, and a fairy being able to do it is likely but untested. I have some backup plans for if I'm not able to be there three hundred years from now, but those are less likely to succeed and I was rather depending on being around myself."

He's been visibly older ever since being told to "stop." He now looks the part of a healthy centuries-old human, which means he can barely stand let alone save the world centuries from now.

[alicornucopia]

"You appear to be deteriorating," observes Thorn. "Tell me why."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"I've been using magic to keep myself young and alive. When you told me to stop, I reverted to my chronological age."

[alicornucopia]

"You may for another thirty seconds continue to breathe," says Thorn idly. "Tell me, how long will you live while you're... withering like that?"

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"I don't know. There's nothing immediately killing me, but for all I know my body could decide to give out at any moment. No human has ever lived this long unassisted."