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]

Promise ignores the presence of her leafy dress and takes a deep breath and impales herself. She fixes her dress with a touch of sorcery.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Her organs rearrange themselves around the spike as soon as it stops moving. Her body is now convinced that there is no physical injury, and when she reactivates her senses there is no pain. Her heartbeat may feel rather differently shaped now.

Alendi hands her a piece of steel. "And this is physical speed. It's the single most useful attribute for catching future vassals by surprise."

[imeanforever]

Promise takes off her redundant earring, looks at the piece of steel, and reshapes it and puts it on.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"I think we're both about as prepared as we can get now?"

[imeanforever]

"In terms of assorted metallic assets, as far as I know, yes. We still need the gate to settle so I can look through it and find where to put a second gate, which will also need to settle, and choreograph your attack plan."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"First person to look isolated gets grabbed, I thought. Since I won't know who's valuable by looking I'm going to have to do that at least once.
If I have some darts made, will you be able to do sorcery on them? I didn't even notice Thorn's hit me, and they injected whatever they had to at least one time in three."

[imeanforever]

"There may not be anyone isolated, I may be able to guess who's valuable, if I can increase my vision by enough I might be able to catch the Queen visiting a room with a window and send you directly to her in a stroke of fantastic luck. I could probably figure out how to make a dart not hurt."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"I can arrange a stroke of fantastic luck, but I don't quite know if it extends to this. And that ability isn't transferrable. Worth a try, though; as long as you supply chromium I don't exactly have limited luck."

[imeanforever]

"Do you have enough left to do it? How does that work, exactly?"

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"It makes me luckier. Things that have an even chance of going favorably end up working three times out of four, or some such. I was counting on it to protect me from Thorn, but his defenses and Blossom's sorcery had a failure rate low enough that the amount of luck I was using didn't counteract it.

I could theoretically make myself a million times luckier than a normal man. I don't have enough stored for that, but I could make more. And then the Queen should definitely be by a convenient window."

[imeanforever]

"But how does it - if she isn't currently planning on being near any windows, or if the harmonics are not already lined up so that I can make a gate that takes exactly the best amount of time to settle, or something, what exactly is it interfering with?"

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"I haven't the faintest idea how it works. I'm not too concerned about it either, since this is the same set of abilities that considers physical health to be a scalar quantity."

[imeanforever]

"It might matter if you use up all your luck trying to influence the Queen in some way she's generically warded against."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"It might, but with a lump of chromium and a few minutes in a safe room, I can get it back. I don't have to put in as much as I get out."

[imeanforever]

"I mean, if any substantial part of the plan has to hinge on luck, it would be nice to know how the luck operates so we can weight that accordingly. If it will work for gate harmonics but will not work for putting the Queen near windows, that's something it would be good to know. Does it aim at all?"

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Yes, at least if I'm flipping coins I get the expected results instead of some other equally unlikely thing.
I haven't tested it enough to say we should rely on the Queen being near a window, but I fully intend to be using vast amounts of it during this. I will to test whether it helps me aim darts."

[imeanforever]

Promise nods.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"I should probably see if I can find such a thing. We don't need to be ready to go as soon as the gate opens, but there's no reason to wait."

[imeanforever]

"I'll stay here and keep checking my little gate. I'm going to need something to eat soon, too. Unless there's a spike for that, and it's probably not worth it anyway."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"That is a Feruchemical ability, actually. Whenever we have excess cadmium lying around I can make the metal, but there's no spike for it. I'll bring some food on the way back.

The announcement that we're at war with a faction or two of magical slavers can wait until tomorrow."

[imeanforever]

"How are you going to announce it? Will I need to be there?"

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"I'll declare it to the general population in the middle of a public square. Ordinarily I'd use magic to make people more likely to not think I've spontaneously gone crazy.
It might be a good idea for you to be there. It wouldn't hurt, at least."

[imeanforever]

"I hope the little gate's settled by then. I don't want to leave it unattended and still trying to settle; I can't close it if it opens while I'm gone."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"You don't have to be there if here is more important. It'll make people slightly more likely to trust you, but that's probably not going to be too much of an issue anyway."

[imeanforever]

"There might be other leaflets, who might match my description, in Thorn's court somewhere or the Queen's... it could be important to have people know my face. But if it doesn't settle soon put it off by a few hours, maybe."