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]

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."

[alicornucopia]

Blossom, in a new dress and with freshly braided hair, comes back into the library and returns to Thorn's side. He runs a finger over the edge of her wing.

"Taking no opportunity to exceed the spirit of this order," Thorn says, "for the next five minutes, stop dying."

Blossom hisses.

"Be calm," Thorn tells her.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Does curing burns count as exceeding the spirit? Better not risk it.

Alendi taps atium, and turns back to his usual age.

[alicornucopia]

"Blossom would have me kill you just for your presumption," says Thorn. "And I mislike having someone around who calls my most precious consort his vassal. Tell me how you got here. To tell me what I want to know, you may breathe; if you form an intention to do anything extraneous, bite off your tongue and then calculate the cube root of every number between a trillion and ten trillion by brute force until further notice from me."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"I got here through a gate. It was made by a sorcerer I acquired, and it leads to one of your courts. From there, I captured Verve and made her take me here."

[alicornucopia]

"Did you suborn any of my others?"

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Two non-sorcerers. Clock and...Rainfall, I think it was."

[alicornucopia]

"Blossom, find Twirl and have him take care of those three appropriately," says Thorn.

Blossom goes off to do that.

"How did you catch Verve?"

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Clock and Rainfall told me when she'd be in the garden alone, so I hid and took her by surprise."

[alicornucopia]

"And then what? Don't be coy with me. I haven't decided not to kill you yet. Blossom is so much pleasanter in a good mood."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"After I caught her I dragged her off and forced her to swallow some pewter dust from my world."

[alicornucopia]

"And how did you overpower her to begin with?"

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"I'm larger and stronger than she is, and I have magic that made it easier."

[alicornucopia]

"Mm. How does your magic work?"

(Blossom returns again.)

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"The magic I used is that I can draw on a large but finite store of different attributes. If I store speed in a piece of steel, I make myself slower for a time I can become faster later. I also gain various abilities from swallowing different metals, though that mostly only works on my own world. If I use that on a metal that has an attribute stored in it, then the metal does not have its usual effect and instead I get several times what I put in.
I can also gain physical or magical abilities by killing people who currently have them, but it's inefficient."

[alicornucopia]

Thorn scritches Blossom under the chin. She bleeds a little but doesn't flinch. "This may not be your lucky day, pretty one," he tells her.

Blossom hisses again.

"How hard would you be to keep?" wonders Thorn.