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've heard her palace and its environs described. I shouldn't put the gate directly against any landmarks I've heard of, but I can aim midair between them if you'll be all right coming out in midair."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"That's fine as long as I don't land somewhere I need to be stealthy. Or if you can make me inaudible, I suppose."

[imeanforever]

"I can do inaudibility."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Can you do at-will inaudibility? Verve's version had to break permanently for me to give orders."

[imeanforever]

"...I can maybe do inaudibility that is conditional on something you do with an object. At-will I'd have to know you better than I do; it's almost like mental sorcery in that way. The object would of course be stealable, but maybe you can mitigate that if it's made of metal."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"That only applies on this world. But it should be hard to steal something from an invisible person."

[imeanforever]

"It'd at least be challenging."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Is there anything else in particular we need planned before I get you zinc Feruchemy and you start scoping out the area?"

[imeanforever]

"I don't think so. We can form more specific plans when I have a look at the place. Is there a way to prevent me needing sleep for at least the next eight days? I was taking naps with Yellow keeping lookout, before, I wasn't just awake the entire time."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"I'll get you a spike and some bronze to go with the zinc. I'll probably have everything ready before the gate settles."

[imeanforever]

"I'm going to make this gate very small. It'll be less conspicuous that way," says Promise. "I'll make a separate one you'll be able to walk through when I've seen candidate sites." She hands him the lump she's transmuted. "That's done."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Thank you. And here's your spike back." He exchanges it and the tinminds for the cadmium, and stores a bit of breath. "On second thought, would you be able to increase the amount of this? I'd need more for the wind thing anyway, and I'm curious about what happens if you duplicate something with a charge in it."

[imeanforever]

"I do still need a chunk of something to transmute. I can't make it out of nothing." Promise re-spikes herself, then gets her writing materials and makes two diagonally positioned crosses on the wall to mark her eye-level little tiny gate where it will settle. There's just enough room to poke her face through, or there will be when it settles. "What would be a particularly interesting experiment is to see what happens if I transmute something that is already charged."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Try this bit of copper," he says, catching a large scrap of copper. "It's charged with the memory of, um, the cube root of eight trillion. I'll hopefully never need to know that, and can just re-derive it if I do."

[imeanforever]

"I have spent a while deriving cube roots. The way Thorn phrases it, you can't just have already done it, you do have to rederive every last one. But all right. What should I turn it into, more cadmium?"

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Yes, please. They're both charged with different things, so I've got no idea what happens. Is this instantaneous, or should I go get the other spikes while it's going?"

[imeanforever]

"It'll take a couple of minutes. Go ahead and get the other spikes."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"I'll be back in probably more than a couple. Not a lot longer, though."

He leaves, and closes the door behind him.

[imeanforever]

Promise watches her gate settle and transmutes the copper into cadmium and makes fairylight notes-to-self that wink out after existing barely long enough to read.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

When the Lord Ruler returns, he has two extra bronze spikes. "This one will let you think and react faster. It goes in your right side," he says, pulling it out of his own. "And this is the sleep one." He points toward one sticking through his wrist.

[imeanforever]

Promise notes these locations and spikes herself, filling tin with discomfort until the wounds heal. And she hands over the transmuted ex-copper.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

It still contains the cube root of eight trillion, despite not being copper. But drawing on it felt like drawing on cadmium did, and it now stores breath not memory. He relates this to Promise.

And he hands her a piece of zinc and one of bronze, each charged with a stupidly large amount that only he could do.

[imeanforever]

"Can I reshape these so they're wearable without it affecting their contents?" she asks.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Yes, you could even break them and it wouldn't affect the total contents."

[imeanforever]

Promise studies their current shapes, and then turns each into a snug anklet.