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]

"I'd rather not. It would mean having to hide with you while the gate fixed, and I'd rather be on my way to my new home."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Very well. I'll find a place when I'm back, and leave a detailed description next to the Fairyland end of today's gate. If you get a chance to use it, great; if not, the only downside is telling parents to keep newborns' birth names secret for nothing."

[imeanforever]

"Sounds like a plan."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Alendi falls silent, thinking how he might actually beat Ruin instead of just delaying.

[imeanforever]

And Promise flies.

Eventually she makes her descent and puts Alendi down in a place that looks extremely uninhabited - it's a dense thicket, with a gap in it apparently created by a fallen tree that has since mostly rotted away and some of the thicket grown back but not too much to push aside. She leads him through this path to a spot in the middle shaded by an adjacent, immense tree's lower boughs. "It's a little cramped, but if you stay here, no one will see you, and I can make a gate here. Okay?"

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Definitely. Secrecy is very much a plus right now.
How long does a gate take to fix?"

[imeanforever]

"It depends entirely on the harmonics of the other end. I honestly can't predict it. It could be immediate or take days." She peers around at the location, finds a stick and a pebble, and embeds them in the ground a few feet apart. "I'll make it between these, okay? Just try walking through, stick on your left, and when the gate is fixed it will take you where you're going, or as close as I turn out to be able to get from your description."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"OK. It might be a good idea to close it afterward, just for safety. Wouldn't want people stepping through in either direction."

[imeanforever]

"If it works right away I'll close it then. Otherwise I'll swing back this way in a few months or so."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"That works. I'll have the other end blocked off if I have to, and nobody'll fall through in the immediate future."

[imeanforever]

"Good."

There is a pause, then, "I've cast. Go ahead and try it in case it was lucky harmonics."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Alendi walks around it so that the stick is on his left, steps forward, and steps through.

His description was apparently precise enough to lead to Luthadel, but not to the palace. He's above another quarter of the city, far above it in fact. He spends a few seconds falling, before he treats himself to a very un-Lord Ruler-like cheer while burning steel to Push off a metallic something-or-other below him and launch himself toward Kredik Shaw. He's an Allomancer again.

[imeanforever]

And Promise smiles and shuts the gate and flies away.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Alendi—no, the Lord Ruler— enters his palace through the door reserved for Mistborn. Or, as others might call it, an upper-story window.

The first order of business is resuming the Soothing of the population. With him gone, lesser Allomancers had to do it. He was gone for less than a day, but it's enough for a noticeable difference to crime and discontent. He replenishes his metals and starts burning brass. Any negative emotions within his range will decrease, and the people will be more content under his rule.

With that back to normal, he publishes a decree through the Canton of Orthodoxy. All new children, noble and skaa, are to have their birth names kept secret. People might not know why he's ordering that yet, but they don't have to.

And finally, he eats. Even with fully charged gold, not eating can get inconvenient.

[imeanforever]

It is about a month - reckoning by the nearest location in Fairyland with a consistent day cycle - when Promise scrambles into the thicket, reopens her gate with a thought, and bursts through.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

She finds herself in the air above a city. It's hotter than she's used to, but there is no visible sun and the air is thick with ash. Below her are streets and canals, both filled with people. In one direction are several castles (eleven if she's counting) one of which appears to be made almost entirely of towers and spires. To the other side are smaller buildings and wide fields.

[imeanforever]

Eugh. She coughs and blinks away as much ash as she can. Pity sorcery doesn't work in the mortal world.

...Except she's still invisible, so that puts paid to that theory. Where did she even read that? She can't remember.

She hovers, invisible, peering at the landscape. It's so strange-looking. And the air is gross. Are there any less ashy areas?

[unprophesied_of_ages]

The ash is everywhere. There may be less of it if she either flies east away from the mountain or enters any building.

[imeanforever]

She descends to the city lowest roof-level, trying to find someplace she can park for a bit without being found or committing home invasion. If she doesn't find out where exactly Alendi is, then if her pursuers catch her she won't necessarily bring anybody else along with her, but she really wants to get out of the ash while she's lying low.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Most of the buildings have wide eaves exactly because of the ash. Hugging walls would at least kind of alleviate the constant rain of ash.
Some of the establishments are open to the public, but her only way of determining which ones is by seeing which have crowds of people going in and out.

[imeanforever]

Promise decides to perch on the exterior of a windowsill belonging to a building thus crowded. She is invisible and will not spoil anyone's view.

When she is thusly perched she starts what is probably an ultimately futile effort to get ash out of her hair.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Ash comes out. It'd take more work to get all of it, but it's fairly easy to make her hair recognizably her hair instead of just a convenient holder for ash.
This might have something to do with how common hats are here.

[imeanforever]

Promise did not have time to pack a hat in her sudden flight.

Perch perch. Eavesdropping. She's going to want to stay until she's almost too hungry to fly back to the gate; she may as well listen to public conversations.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Nobody complains about the ash. It's taken for granted. Nor do they mention the Lord Ruler. So is he.

Promise will hear quite a bit against the nobles. Over the course of eavesdropping, she'll hear that they allegedly treat the non-nobles as essentially tools useful mainly for enriching whatever House they work for. The speakers, sharing drinks and complaints, aren't advocating doing anything about it, of course. Just commenting on how they're worked to the bone and barely paid.
According to one person, "we city skaa" are actually the lucky ones. The plantation workers get beaten if they don't work and killed if they can't. Thirdhand rumors say that some skaa halfway across the empire are allowed to own land.

[imeanforever]

Promise tentatively suspects that she doesn't much approve of this place. She listens more anyway, because she is not yet accustomed to the conditions of this windowsill to make an ash-shooing spell before she flies out in the sky again.