The Price of Balance

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Author's Note: This was written prior to Shen's champion update in January 2016 and the release of Jhin, so it's based on Shen's old lore.

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Shen stood in the hassō stance, focusing his ki into his blade. Today, he focused not on sharpness or the perfect killing strike, but the flat blow that broke bones, harming without killing. Balance in all things. A sword was a tool only for doing harm, but it was a tool and it should be able to do all that he required of it.

A whiff of ozone was his only warning. His body shifted with the taps of Kennen's feet as the yordle ran up him, then settled to compensate for the weight of the yordle on his shoulders.

"How do you feel?" Kennen reached out to tap his sword, his own ki interfering wildly with Shen's. They both knew he appreciated the challenge.

"Like I have a yordle on my shoulders."

Kennen chopped him just above his ear. It hurt, but not enough to leave his head ringing - the yordle wasn't angry. "About Zed, silly."

"He is unbalanced in and of himself. He will not balance his order with ours. We are going to have to kill him, but first we must find someone who can assume his position and bring his Order of the Shadow into balance with the Kinkou." Shen had thought carefully on this since the day his father's temple fell. His first instinct was to kill Zed, but as the Eye of Twilight, he knew his first instinct was to be weighed against the balance of the world.

The Order of the Shadow existed. To exterminate it would unbalance the world even more than allowing it to remain. Only until the scales tipped to the point where allowing it to remain unbalanced everything more than any other option, could he wipe it out root and branch. For now, though, he must strive to bring it into the balance.

Kennen patted his head. "He killed your father, Shen."

Irelia had said much the same thing, though she had been furious. Kennen just sounded worried.

Karma had understood.

"People die," he said, banishing the last of Kennen's lightning-like ki from his sword. "My father was destined to die from the day he drew his first breath. Only the manner of his death was unknown."

"Shen." That familiar, quiet desperation was back in Kennen's voice. The desperation he only seemed to direct at Shen and Akali. "He. Murdered. Your. Father. His Order of the Shadow nearly slaughtered the Kinkou dwelling in that temple to a man. Don't you feel anything?"

"I am the Eye of Twilight," Shen said simply. "I am what my father trained me to be. I will not dishonor him by forgetting my training in this manner."

Kennen took a deep breath. "You lost people you love, and it's still just about the balance to you."

Shen tilted his head slightly, feeling Kennen shift his body with the movement. "You and Akali both live."

There was a long pause, then Kennen patted his head again. "Did you even love your father?"

Shen breathed in. Breathed out. Breathed in again. He had never really thought about it or about what love was. He honored his father, did his duty to his father, and became what his father wanted him to be. That was a form of love, wasn't it? "I... don't know."

"Oh, Shen." Kennen hugged him. "Sometimes I think you and Akali need me because you're both terrible human beings."

-End-