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

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"If you say the linchpin spike in their back is necessary to keep them alive, they'll know you're from me.
Be careful with writing that one down, though, or saying it around non-Inquisitors. It's secret for obvious reasons."

[imeanforever]

"Okay. Anything else?"

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"If there are any of those metals nearby right now, I could use extra time to fill them.
If you're still in the room with the portal to Thorn's court, there are sets of ordinary metals opposite the rare ores."

[imeanforever]

Promise feeds through everything she can find in little bits, listening carefully for footsteps.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Alendi accepts them, and starts filling them as quickly as he can without completely disabling himself.

[imeanforever]

"I'm going to close the gate while I'm fetching the other things."

And she shuts them, and walks out of the room to go find Inquisitors.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

If anyone comes for him before she gets back, he'll have a chance to make a break for it. Not a good chance, but a chance. The orders are gone, at least.

[alicornucopia]

Just guard patrols. Nobody who opens his pit. His experience is entirely consistent with the Queen intending to starve him.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

This is convenient, because the bit of gold in his head was meant to regrow his entire body in an emergency. It can handle dehydration. Just not comfortably.

[imeanforever]

And in time Promise comes back, and reopens the little gate, and starts passing through what he asked for.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Alendi spikes himself and checks the metals.

"Before I start, can you give me directions from the dungeon back to the balcony gate? If it's still open, that is. I should come back to Scadrial to recharge properly before moving on the Queen, and you'll need the same."

[imeanforever]

"The dungeon exit is the opposite of the way you're facing. Go up six floors, go straight across the atrium - both of these are usually accomplished by flying - go down the rightmost branch of the hallway, take the third door on your right, you will see the balcony on your right and will have a decent shot of jumping into the gate from there."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Sounds straightforward.
Can you make me undetectable again? I'll probably be being chased on the way out, and any advantage helps."

[imeanforever]

"Yes."

Bam, bam, bam.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

And Alendi finally works his way out of the bulk of his chains, and begins scaling the wall. He'll be at the top of it much more quickly than an ordinary climber could be expected to.

[imeanforever]

At the top there is a grate. Promise helpfully melts it for him; her little gate is angled to allow that.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Good, that's much stealthier than breaking it. Alendi exits the pit (finally!) and heads toward the balcony.

[alicornucopia]

He is chased! Things attempt to impale him!

[unprophesied_of_ages]

When he gets back, he and Promise are going to have words about this "invisibility."

But even without the reserves to casually make everyone else freeze, he's still faster than his attackers. And he can still see the attacks before they happen. The visible ones, anyway. Chasing and impaling are not going to be very effective.

[alicornucopia]

Well, then, he will make it to the dungeon exit.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Next up: Six floors' worth of fairy stairwell. Repeatedly jumping off walls and upward works fairly well, under the circumstances. It may, however, make his position predictable.

[alicornucopia]

It does at that. Something heavy falls on him. Fairies he can see on the landings of the stairwell are panicking accordingly.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

The heavy thing knocks Alendi out of his trajectory. He falls a flight or two before catching himself on one of the landings, and decides there isn't much choice but to head back through the well and try to avoid heavy things.

[alicornucopia]

Tough! There are a bunch of heavy things! Wham. Wham.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

The deafness doesn't help with avoiding them. Okay then, time to spend more resources than he can really afford to go straight up through the heavy thing-free ceiling.