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]

Apparently her vomiting was not fully effective. She stops resisting. More pewter. Yum.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Pewter is pretty unsavory and also potentially harmful. He doesn't care.
"Take no new action except for saying true things in response to my questions. Give complete answers and do not leave out any information relevant to one of my questions that you think I'd want to know. Got that?"

[alicornucopia]

"Yes, master."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"First question: Do you want to keep working for Thorn? I've heard he's pretty terrible to his minions."

[alicornucopia]

"I prefer working for him to any alternative I have considered recently," says Verve.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"I'm not going to bother with a recruitment pitch when I have you and he doesn't, but I'm pretty sure I'm less sadistic. Anyway, I plan to capture him. What sorcerous defenses does he have that might prevent me from getting to him?"

[alicornucopia]

"His court structures and the routes between them are all but impassable to anyone he has not had expressly written in as an exception. Sorcerers are hidden in several places and will attack unauthorized passers-by. There are automatic traps in and around the buildings that will injure or in your case kill anyone who doesn't know how to bypass them. He will heal automatically from any harm you do and can pass through solid objects at will, including your hands, if cornered."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Alendi can only approve of this level of paranoia.
"Which of those defenses can you neutralize?"

[alicornucopia]

"I know how to go around the traps in the nearest court and the northwest court. I can enter the buildings and passages myself but can't let you in. Sorcerers might not attack if it looked to them like I had captured you."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"How impassable is 'all but' impassable?
If you can't stop the intangibility thing, are there other sorcerers who can? Or, if I put some food inside an intangible fairy, would that count as feeding him?"

[alicornucopia]

"I know that a sorcerer has managed to get through the wards before but I don't know how. Blossom could probably prevent Thorn from going through things if she tried. Intangibility is not the same as going through things, but if he managed to make your food pass through him I don't think it would count."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Okay, where can I find Blossom?
And what do these wards do that takes a sorcerer to get past?"

[alicornucopia]

"Blossom is always near Thorn. There are several layers of wards; the layer I've helped with makes a barrier around the physical walls of the structures."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Is that 'near' as in I can't possibly grab her without being seen? Is there anyone else who could get past that?"

[alicornucopia]

"Sometimes they aren't in the same room. Someone else like Rainfall or Twirl might be able to undo some of his protections but they're much less likely than Blossom."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

It occurs to Alendi that he might as well arrange for Verve to think he's a better master than Thorn. He burns zinc, and she'll have vaguely positive associations with him.

"Can you make me undetectable? If not, I may have to settle for directions to those other two."

[alicornucopia]

"I can turn you invisible, inaudible, and unsmellable, but you'd still move air currents and have weight on the ground."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Would anyone notice air currents moving, or otherwise see through the invisibility?"

[alicornucopia]

"Sorcerers have to pay attention to that kind of thing but might not notice immediately."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Might not. How long would I have? And would this let me get past the sorcerers watching for trespassers?"

[alicornucopia]

"You are more likely to get past all of the guard sorcerers if it looks like I've captured you than if you're sneakily following me. Blossom is very skilled but her reaction time is more than half a second; Twirl is faster but not by much, Rainfall is slower."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"But if it looks like you've captured me then people will know I exist. And I'm going to have to capture at least one fairy before Thorn; I'd rather not have him on his guard.

How likely am I to get past the guards if I use the invisibility and have you try to distract them without them knowing it's you?"

[alicornucopia]

"I don't know what you mean."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"I don't want to be noticed at all if I can avoid it. If I'm invisible and you, I don't know, make suspicious sounding noises somewhere very far from either of us. Or whatever sorcery can do to make them not notice the air currents. Then how likely would it be that we get into the court safely?"

[alicornucopia]

"I could probably cover your travel that way."