unprophesied_of_ages | A forest that was not there yesterday

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

alicornucopia

"When she's not with Thorn she's often standing guard outside of whatever room he's in but sometimes she's alone in the bathhouse or the library."

From:

unprophesied_of_ages

"Library. Let's go with library.
What are my chances of getting there and lying in wait safely until she's alone there?"

From:

alicornucopia

"It could take a couple of days before she's there by herself. With my help I'd say something like a seventy-five percent chance depending on who's on guard duty and what I haven't been told about the defenses."

From:

unprophesied_of_ages

"If you're right about the seventy-five, that's good enough. I have a couple of tricks that can make it more likely than that. And I can stay hidden for a couple of days if that's what it takes.

With the invisibility thing, can I make myself heard if I want to be? I'd much rather be able to give Blossom orders without having to get you to remove it first."

Edited Date: 2015-02-09 01:20 am (UTC)

From:

alicornucopia

"I could make it so that your voice would break the spell."

From:

unprophesied_of_ages

"That would work.
While I'm hiding, will you be able to act as you otherwise would without anyone suspecting you've been captured?"

From:

alicornucopia

"I don't think I'm a particularly talented actor," she says, "but I don't have any duties that require me to talk to anyone extensively in the next couple of days. Escorting you to the library will disrupt my chore route, though. I'm already behind."

From:

unprophesied_of_ages

"I suppose we'd best get started then. Make your best effort to make sure I get to the library safely and successfully catch Blossom, and do not allow anyone to find out about me. And keep me informed on what sorcery you're doing along the way."

From:

alicornucopia

"It will be less obvious that something has gone wrong if you put Clock and Rosewood back where you got them and tell them to resume their usual work," Verve advises. "If I tell you every time I do sorcery I may have to speak to you in front of a guard."

From:

unprophesied_of_ages

"Um. Good point. First order takes precedence; don't do or say anything that would give away my existence.
Is there anything else you think would help my chances?"

From:

alicornucopia

"Can you fly?" she asks.

From:

unprophesied_of_ages

"I can be simultaneously weightless and very strong, but can't make the things I'm wearing immune to gravity. So I can't fly, but may be able to compensate for it for some purposes. Why?"

From:

alicornucopia

"It would be less suspicious to bypass the usual routes between courts if we flew. I might be able to carry the weight of the things you're wearing, but it would be obvious I was holding something unless we came up with a way for me to wear you."

From:

unprophesied_of_ages

"My people sometimes carry things in bags on their backs with straps over the shoulders. You couldn't, with your wings, but if you wear something like that backwards then I could hang from that."

From:

alicornucopia

"I don't have such a thing," Verve points out.

From:

unprophesied_of_ages

"I can get one. Capturing the sadistic villain with a sorcerer collection isn't going to be foiled for lack of a backpack."

He tells the other two fairies, "Go back through the gate, return to whatever you'd be doing normally, and do everything in your power to make sure nobody finds out where you've been or anything about me."

Then he opens the door the required way, disappears through it, and will return shortly.

From:

alicornucopia

Clock and Rosewood go back to their work.

Verve waits.

From:

unprophesied_of_ages

Alendi returns with a small backpack that he could hang onto, and a rope to make the hanging on easier. Also a few more vials, in case he needs to capture more fairies than he's expecting to.

"You can make objects unnoticeable too, right?"

From:

alicornucopia

"As much as I can you," Verve says.

From:

unprophesied_of_ages

"Good. Then, do that on me and the harness and then I'm ready to start. How will I recognize Blossom when I see her?"

From:

alicornucopia

"Blossom is the only dewflower in any of Thorn's courts and couldn't be easily confused with anyone we'd run across. She's slightly taller than me and she's mostly brown with pink flower-petal wings."