Swain looked out at the distant mountains, their stone cold, hard exterior and wondered on many things at once. The most immediate thought was the votes. Darius would not come around to his more peaceful solution and the faceless refused to even vote on the matter, sighing deeply several times and then continuing it's incessant humming. So the compromise was set, Garen would be put into a highly defended cell where he would have minimal food. At least he gets to keep his tongue, an undoubtedly important asset. Swain grimaced and shook his head. He hated the Demacians with all his heart yet there was a flicker of weakness in his outer armour. He did not know whether he wanted to spare Garen from a harsher sentence to calm Lux or because something else... It was undeniable, his visions started affecting him. He could not bear to remember the tattered, blood soaked banners of Noxus resting on the frozen ice and then think about the Immortal Bastion being defended by a group of Demacians and Noxians alike, there was something brewing and he had to get to the bottom of it. Thing is the Immortal Bastion is not the best place to go snooping around.

Namely because of one person, or rather entity.

Lux awoke to a knock on her door quite early in the morning. The door opened gently and the distinctive black overcoat of Swain entered her room. He paced straight away to the balcony then looked around. He turned back and with a half smile waved her over. She walked to him, unsure of what was going on in his head when he reached out with his hand. Reluctantly, she also held her hand out to which Swain took it and walked to the edge of the balcony. "Dont panic." he whispered and before Lux could question he backed off the balcony taking Lux with him. Lux's mind suddenly got taken away from her thoughts and into the situation they were in. To her surprise she did not panic and instead focused on trying to save them. She focused the light around them to form a protective barrier, so when they hit the ground neither of them got hurt. The only thing that happened is the several citizens around them jumped in panic. The bewildered citizens and the panicking guards all rushed over, but when Swain clicked his fingers the pair were back on the balcony. Brought back into the room Lux could finally gather her thoughts.

"What in the world was that?" Lux asked with a tone of annoyance in her voice.

"Simple. You always overthink and hence always limit yourself, when its survival on the stake you can use your powers effectively. You are clearly more in control than you think.

Lux suddenly realised. She expected her feeling of dread and fear to come rushing back, but now something had changed. She realised her problem, and its not something Swain could help her with, and with the look on his face it seems he knows this too.

"Still, you need to refine your abilities, you cannot exactly use your powers in the last second, sometimes that wont be fast enough, you need to be ready. Now follow me."

It was a long day filled with walking all around the capital, in the name of training, but in reality Swain did very little training, mostly pacing around with a well hidden scowl on his face. There was something bothering him, and Lux did not know what. Only towards the end of their "adventure" did Swain actually start properly training. He pointed at criminals running from the guards and Lux knew what he was asking. She used the light to bind them to the ground, but each time she felt more and more guilty. After a while she turned to Swain.

"Why are we practising on criminals?" he did not stop and kept on walking

"I thought you love justice!" he asked with a coy tone and a grin on his face, but before anything else came out of her mouth he continued, "Simple, they are moving and will get caught anyway, at least you get to make yourself useful!"

Making herself useful. Something about that seemed off to her. "Thought you were not expecting profit from helping me." He laughed then nodded. "Yes, well making yourself useful is not the same as me profiting off this arrangement." To which Lux had the response, "And what would that be?"

Swain froze and deeply considered the question. He turned to face her and saw that now she had a grin on her face. "You growing stronger than anyone could handle and then ruling Noxus and leading it to glory. Though that's what I want everyone to do, sadly most fail, and will continue to do so." Lux's smile faded into confusion. "You would have a Demacian rule Noxus?" Swain nodded. " I want only the strongest to rule." He turned back to where they were heading and continued on, silently.

**So yeah. I might have not updated this story in months because I got ideas that I had to write down and then develop and then I fell down that rabbit hole. This story is not dead, so don't think that. I have some ideas for the longer term I just have to connect these dots to those. After this chapter I will write 6 more and that's guaranteed. After that I'll decide whether I want to actually continue or just finish the story there. Anyway, next chapter will happen in a while, not a few months though.*