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 gestures at Yellow; he wobbles to his feet and follows her through the wall. Promise is back presently.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"State your name."

[imeanforever]

The queen does nothing. To the extent that any expression may be read in solid-colored cobalt blue eyes, she looks relieved.

"...Did you manage to forget your own name?" Promise asks.

"Yes," breathes the Queen.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"In that case, you're ordered to do whatever Promise tells you to."

This is pretty acceptable, actually. It means the Queen ultimately answers to precisely one person, and Promise is going to be permanently dependent on mortals to control her.

[imeanforever]

"Describe what your court will be doing in the wake of your disappearance."

"Those who were not in range of my voice will be doing their best to order out all those I commanded to hold. They will be seeking your gates so that my Arcane may force them open. They will look for anyone who may have been working with you," the queen says. "Assessing and repairing damage and injury and transformations."

"How long will it take Arcane to find a gate and force it?"

"He has done this in as little as an hour before."

"Will he start with the one Alendi went through?"

"Yes."

"Who besides you knows Arcane's name?"

"Spellwhip and Cirrus."

"Where will they be?"

"Spellwhip in the massage lounge until someone releases him. Cirrus in the retreat thirty miles east."

"I am going to open a small gate within shouting distance of Arcane. Tell him to take no new action; apply that to any other vassals who hear you. I'll do the same near Spellwhip. Will someone be going to fetch Cirrus?"

"Yes."

"Describe the retreat enough that I can make a gate there."

"It sits in a valley surrounded by two streams, one which runs from the red mountains and one which runs from a white marble spring. It is twilight there. The clouds are what gives Cirrus his nickname."

Promise draws a line on a wall she has not yet covered with lines and dots. She touches several spots along this line. "When one of those settles you'll do the same thing to Cirrus. Who know Spellwhip and Cirrus's names?"

There follows a dizzying nest of mutual and circular and dead-ended vassalizations; Promise eventually makes the queen draw a chart, which activity is interspersed with the use of occasional gate-settlings as escape routes for queenly orders are cut off. Eventually Promise has checked off all the ends on her chart.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Is there anyone else who can force a gate?" Alendi asks. Over the course of the collection they'll probably catch most of the important players, but it's best to be sure.

Once he's not needed for the sorcery, Alendi sets about returning his borrowed spikes and resupplying his and Promise's metalminds. He decides not to go find where he left his name; that seems like it would be more of a vulnerability than an asset most of the time.
He is back by the time the chart is complete.

[imeanforever]

"In theory any sorcerer. None but Arcane have managed it that I know," says the Queen.

Promise is extremely diligent about handling the contents of the chart. It turns out she has made enormous numbers of little gates, having scattered attempts all over the place in the hopes of figuring out a kindly-harmonicked route to the dungeons so that she could make the one that let her free Alendi. Some of them settle over the course of the chart being made. Promise makes herself a map of them to keep track as they get to be too many to store in easily working memory. When Arcane is thoroughly locked down (and many of the other highly favored with him) Promise suggests pausing to let herself, Yellow, and the queen eat (it's been hours and hours). Then it's time to move on to the rest of the network of names which happen not to intersect relevantly with Arcane's.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

Alendi enjoys watching his count of minions-by-proxy increase.

"I can think of some potential uses for sorcerers," he says. "Would it be safe to collect them on this side of the gate, or does it need to stay closed?"

[imeanforever]

"I'd like to have orders worked out ahead of time," Promise says. "Everyone who's already near the large gate is immobilized, so it should be safe to order someone there. What do you want sorcerers for right now?"

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Nothing urgent. It's for transmutation of useful things, keeping our future destination safe, possibly fixing the weather here and mind sorcery. You mentioned that takes a long time to build familiarity, so if there are any telepaths available I'd like to have them get started early."

[imeanforever]

"Weather makes sense - what mind sorcery do you want done?"

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"I've still got one too many immortal gods of destruction in my basement, and it would be really great if someone could render it brain-dead."

[imeanforever]

"How is anybody going to get acquainted with your god of destruction?" Promise asks.

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"I don't know; however they usually do it. As long as they don't need physical contact we can stick them in the room with it."

[imeanforever]

"Can they talk to it?"

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Yes. Not directly, but something can be safely arranged. Can't guarantee it'll answer, though."

[imeanforever]

"If it doesn't answer it's not going to work."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"They don't have ways to sense it directly? Then we'll have to be convincing. Offer to destroy things in exchange, maybe, or even let it think it might be able to talk someone into letting it out.

I can buy this world a thousand years at a time, but sorcery is the only thing I've heard of that might permanently destroy the threat. If it might work, I want to try to look into it."

[imeanforever]

"The reason mental sorcery is so obscure - that Thorn didn't have Twirl rearrange my brain to suit him - is that you need uncoerced, genuine, freely supplied insight into the mind you want to ensorcel. You can't get that from a vassal and I'm not sure you can get it from someone you're bribing who's trying to manipulate you."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"We can pick some gratuitously destructive sorcerer and hope they hit it off? I'm already far from sure this would work even in the best case."

[imeanforever]

"But this is clearly not something that will work in the next month even if Ruin is very chatty. So that's a lower priority."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"I did say nothing was immediately urgent.

How many vassals are left that we need the—her for? We haven't stopped Thorn yet."

[imeanforever]

"Is there anyone in your court whose name only you know?" Promise asks the Queen.

"No."

"What would you need to do in order to quickly and efficiently collect a court of between sixty and one hundred fairies in four to eight locations, heavily skewed towards sorcerers, expertly commanded and mostly psychologically loyal, fifteen hundred miles from your palace but with a gate available?"

"I would send my Arcane and his Red Flight of vassals, and the Diamond Nine. If I knew the court leader's identity I could omit the Nine."

"But even without that identity, you're sure Arcane and the Flight and the Nine can take care of it?"

"Yes."

"Who leads the Nine?"

"Veracity knows the names of the other eight."

Promise finds Veracity on the chart and then consults her map. "Will they need the gate?"

"Not necessarily. Arcane can cross the distance."

"Quickly?"

"In minutes."

[unprophesied_of_ages]

"Is there a safe way for us to see Thorn's face when he realizes who's after him?" Alendi is asking the important questions.

[imeanforever]

"Probably not," says Promise. "Queen?"

"Canvas of the Flight is a gifted artist and could produce a rendering if she witnessed it."

"So there's that."