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]

Promise doesn't notice that the rest of her instruction has fallen on deaf ears. "You're welcome. I know where I want to go long term -" She ducks into her room and fills a bag with fruit and books. "But I can't carry you flying, and Yellow's faster than I am and I don't know when he'll be back. I can draw you a map to the gate I've already made if you think you can get home from where it opens? I don't remember the name of the place, though."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"I can make myself lighter. Can't change the weight of my clothes or all this metal I'm wearing," he clinks his bracelets, "and how long I can do it at a time is limited by how much iron I have.
An existing gate...it probably goes to somewhere in the Empire; that's where most of the population is likely to be from. But if the last mortal was from the South—and I know little about what's going on there—then getting back would be difficult."

[imeanforever]

"I don't remember where she was from. I think I can accommodate the weight of the metal and clothes at least for a shortish flight. We can stop somewhere long enough for me to start a new gate, but you'll have to wait for it to connect. Will you starve if it takes awhile?"

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Not literally. If I were to not eat for long it'd be uncomfortable, but I wouldn't suffer health problems or starve to death for...I don't know. Longer than I'm likely to need to."

[imeanforever]

"It won't take longer than a few days. I think I know a place I can put a gate where nobody will think to look for you for that long." She heads out the door. "And I think you know better than to eat fey food twice. Let me know when you're light enough for me to try picking you up."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Let me try something first. It'll lengthen how long I can sustain the lightness."

Alendi follows out the door, then jumps to the opposite edge of the roof. (Fill iron, tap pewter.) He starts tapping iron, emptying that bracelet of all its stored weight and making himself far heavier than any human is expected to be. After Yellow's wall collapses he jumps back and, falling slowly, says "I should be good to weigh nothing for a while now."

[imeanforever]

"If you say so." She glares at the damaged house. It erupts in flames. And then she flutters into the air and attempts to pick Alendi up.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

It's like trying to lift a human-sized balloon held down by clothes and jewelry. The weight isn't an issue, but the fact that he's bigger than she is might be inconvenient for flying with.

[imeanforever]

It's indeed kind of inconvenient and unaerodynamic, and probably pretty uncomfortable for Alendi too, but she manages to ascend.

"Maybe two hours to get where I'm leaving you, and then as long as you lie low, you will probably get home okay. You can tell me while we're flying how you want the gate aimed."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Alendi notes the direction and their speed, stores the information in a coppermind, and notes it again. He may want to send people to catch Yellow later.

"Anywhere in Luthadel is good, inside Kredik Shaw is best. It's on the river Channerel at our North Pole, halfway between a lake and a giant volcano constantly spewing ash."

[imeanforever]

"The physical geography is more useful than the place names."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"It's at the northernmost part of the planet, east of the largest ashmount and surrounded by a large ring of the other six, the river flows through the city, and Kredik Shaw is at the center of a system of canals."

[imeanforever]

"I can do that."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Good. That world does have its good features.

Does everyone here have a habit of enslaving people, or is that just a minority?"

[imeanforever]

"It's pretty common. Everyone can, and it's safer to have someone's name than not, since vassals can't harm their masters. I've never had a vassal unless you count yourself, but I think I'm in the minority."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Alendi doesn't know why he wouldn't count, since Promise can tell him to do things and he can't do likewise, but he's definitely not drawing her attention to that.

"Supposing you managed to make everyone your vassal, without them necessarily knowing about it. Would this place be safe then?"

[imeanforever]

"Well, there's a Queen, who knows every fairy's name without having to learn it, and I suppose she's quite safe. Everyone knows about that though."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Literally everyone? That's intimidating. No special advantage relative to mortals, though, right?"

[imeanforever]

"She does not automatically know mortals' names, but you probably still don't want to bother her, because that's not the only way to get a name."

[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."