A/N: Here is chapter 21. Plot stuff does happen. Silly and serious.

Irelia lifted herself up in bed. She hardly was able to sleep the previous night, and as a result her head was pounding.

This is going to be a good day… Irelia thought to herself sarcastically as she dragged herself out of bed.

Irelia looked around the simple room that had been given to her by the monks. She should have been glad that she had a room all to herself, for the first time in a while she had privacy. She had been enjoying the privacy for the entirety of her stay, except for this morning. All Irelia felt this morning was loneliness. As she was going through her morning routine Irelia realized that she hadn't written to Karma since they had gotten to the temple.

She is probably worried about us. But there isn't any mail route that I could send a letter out from here…

The temple, nor its inhabitants, didn't get much mail so there wasn't a dedicated route to the temple. Other towns that they had visited had places Irelia could drop her letter off at, but here everything was sent out by courier. The courier themselves weren't the problem, the problem was that they didn't go out very frequently. The next one most likely wouldn't leave till a few days after they would be leaving. When she was about to move her mind away from the topic, a pang of guilt overtook her. Hiding the fact that she was reporting to Karma about Syndra behind her back was starting to take its toll on Irelia. She wasn't sure how much longer she would be able to keep it up.

As Irelia went about her day, the loneliness followed her around. Riven was busy with therapy for her shoulder, Lee Sin was preoccupied training his students, and Syndra was nowhere to be found. As a result she spent most of the day between meditating, training with her blades, forms, and hand to hand drills on training dummies before finally turning in early for bed.

The next morning started off very similarly as the previous. Irelia laid in her bed and stared up at the ceiling and did nothing else but think. She kept wondering what this pit she felt in her stomach was, and why she felt unmotivated to do...anything.

Her thoughts were interrupted when someone knocked on her door.

Irelia got up and made her way over to the door, when she opened it she was greeted by Lee Sin on the other side.

"Good morning Irelia, may I come in?" Lee Sin asked.

"Oh yes, of course." Irelia responded, caught off guard in her not quite yet awake state.

"Thank you." Lee walked into the room and took a seat at the chair for the desk in the corner of the room.

Irelia was still amazed at how well Lee Sin was able to move about the temple, by how gracefully he moved, you would never guess that he was blind.

"So what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

Lee grimaced, "It looks like a snowstorm is heading our way from the West. The will be here in a day or two. You, Riven, and Syndra probably should head out as quickly as you can, lest you be trapped here till the snow melts."

Ionian winters tended to be harsh on the northern portion of Ionia, especially here in the mountains. Once snow landed in certain parts of Ionia, sometimes it would stay on the ground until it melted in the spring. Few people traveled in the winter due to the snow staying on the roads for so long, and temperatures dropping low enough at night that if you stayed out too long you would freeze. If they got caught here, it would be a few months before they could safely travel back.

"Thank you, I will talk to them and we will get ready to leave as soon as we can."

They didn't have too many supplies with them, given how they had arrived. So packing up to leave would be a very quick process.

"I have already let Riven and Syndra. They will be ready to go shortly."

Irelia began to silently gather her things together in a small pack in the corner of the room.

"How goes things between you and Syndra?"

Caught off guard by the question, Irelia dropped her bag on the floor. Most of her clothes fell out onto the floor.

"What makes you ask?"

"I know you two spent some quality time together the other night, but I haven't seen you together since then. Add that to the fact that Syndra spent the day yesterday throwing rocks at the mountain. She only does that when she is perturbed."

Is it really that obvious to everyone else… Irelia thought nervously.

Lee Sin continued, "I don't want to butt into your personal life too much."

A little late for that.

"But it would be better for everyone if you resolved this quickly, and preferably in a way that keeps Syndra happy."

"Thank you for your advice, and heads up about the storm. I have my stuff packed, so I probably should get everyone together to head out." Irelia responded. Normally she would like to talk to Lee Sin for a bit longer, but this conversation was fairly awkward and uncomfortable so she just wanted it to be over.

When Irelia got outside of the temple, Riven and Syndra were already packed up and ready to go. There was even horses prepared for them by the temple monks. After saying their goodbyes, and thanking the monks for the hospitality one last time, they set off back for the Placidium. There trip back however, would be a long and awkward one that was filled with a lot of silence. Most of it was chalked up to Irelia and Syndra seemingly unsure of how to act around one another.

"What is he thinking…?" Karma muttered to herself. She had her elbows on her desk massaging her temples. The meeting between the elders had ended a few minutes ago, and she was now in her office with Shen. "What do you think of the situation?"

"The evidence against Zed is overwhelming."

"I'm not asking about what the evidence says, I'm asking what your opinion is."

Karma wasn't sure for a moment if Shen had heard her as a stretch of silence passed between them.

"I don't know. Judging by the testimony, weapons used, and autopsies it is fairly damning evidence. But, something is off."

"Off? Elaborate."

"It doesn't seem to fit Zed's style of killing. Most of the victims didn't die immediately, they died because they succumbed to their wounds. Leaving someone as a survivor was sloppy. The choice of victims was also fairly suspicious. Those monks had nothing to do with the Order of Shadows, they were and most likely never would be a threat to him, so what would be his motivation?"

"They were an ancient order that was a branch of the Solari. They worshipped the Sun and were directly opposed to darkness of any kind. Wouldn't that be reason enough? They could pose a threat to him if he expanded his territory too much."

Shen shook his head in disagreement, "The Solari opposed the Lunari, I doubt they had any interest in his shadows. Not to mention Zed's goal isn't world domination as far as I know, or even conquest of Ionia. He disagreed with the Kinkou orders beliefs, and we didn't do anything to dull that hatred, and payed for it."

Karma nodded, "So you don't think he did it?"

"We won't know that until we speak to him ourselves, which we don't have the ability to do. As far as I know there isn't anyone who has the kind of relationship with him."

Karma sighed, "I may know someone who can get ahold of him. However I don't know where they are."

Shen tilted his head slightly at Karma's statement. She figured that was probably the most emotion that she would get out of him in a professional setting.

"The Dark Sovereign has a personal contact with him."

Shen flinched like he had been hit for a brief moment, "Zed is hanging out with a girl?"

Karma blinked for a moment, confused at his random question. "Y-yes? Why is that so odd? Surely there are females in the Order of Shadows? I don't know what their relationship is, but it doesn't seem to be intimate from my reports."

"Reports?"

"For some reason The Dark Sovereign has taken an interest in hanging out with Ionia's Captain of the Guard. She is on a mission right now."

"That seems...dangerous."

"It is, but Irelia isn't the type of person to take no for an answer. I requested that she send me daily reports about their travels, and any new information that she learned about The Dark Sovereign or Master of Shadows."

The way Shen's face moved, Karma assumed that he raised an eyebrow in interest.

"Interesting. Have you learned anything?"

Karma shook her head, "Nothing that is relevant to our current situation. However I haven't heard from her in over a week so I fear for the worst."

"She has survived this long. I think she can survive a bit longer on her own. What was the tone of her last report?"

Karma leaned back in thought for a moment thinking. "Everything seemed fine. None of the reports indicated that there was a problem, maybe a bit of guilt from Irelia since she felt like she was spying on her friends but that was it."

"So their friendship is mutual?" Though his voice was flat as usual, Karma could tell that he was skeptical.

"I'm not sure. It seems to be on Irelia's side. However I am not sure what purpose The Dark Sovereign has in befriending her."

Shen rubbed his hand against his chin in thought for a moment, "I will keep an eye on them when they return and see whether or not it is genuine or not."

"Thank you, Ionia has dealt with enough tragedy as of late and I would prefer not to add Ms. Lito to that list."

Shen glanced out the window and then back to Karma, "I'm sorry but it is getting late. I should get back to my apartment, it is dangerous to leave Akali alone with Kennen for too long."

Karma gave Shen a disbelieving glance, "Do they still not get along?"

"They get along well, the last time you saw them was just bad timing. Tensions were….high back then so things seemed worse than they really were."

Karma's expression now changed to one of curiousity, "Wait, does she really try to dress him up in children's clothes?"

Karma swore that she heard a rumor like that a long time ago, but there had never been an appropriate time to ask.

It's good to hear that things aren't as bad as they seem. Karma was shocked to hear that Shen had ordered the remnants of the Kinkou Order to scatter around Ionia. She can't say that she would of done the same, but he feared that Zed would go after them and figured it was the safest course of action to protect them.

Shen let out a sigh and politely excused himself shortly after.

Even though Karma never got an answer, his lack of one was more than enough for her.

Ugh….why does my head hurt so much?

Zed got up and looked around, when he did he was shocked at what he found. He was in his room at the Order of Shadows, but that wasn't the surprising part. The surprising part was what he saw directly ahead of him, he was staring at himself sharpening his blades.

"Finally awake are we?" His body said as it turned to face him.

"You! What did you do to me!" Zed practically shouted at his other self.

"Didn't you listen last time we spoke? The answer should be obvious."

Zed brought his hand hand up to his head as a sharp pain shot through it as he struggled to sort his thoughts. Zed felt like he had a terrible hangover, but he didn't remember drinking any alcohol. It was then as he opened his eyes that he registered the fact that his hands, no his whole body, was transparent.

"You...swapped our bodies?"

"More our planes of existence, I just look like you because I am...was your shadow." The shadow waved his hand dismissively at Zed, "It's a complicated magical process that you wouldn't understand."

Zed tried to lash out at his former shadow, but all of his attacks merely phased through it.

"Now now, didn't your daddy ever tell you that you should solve your problems without resorting to violence?"

It took all of Zed's discipline to keep his anger from clouding his thoughts further. He knew he was playing with fire when he opened the box, but this was more than he thought it was capable of. His shadows intelligence and dark, even if it was sarcastic, nature should of been enough of a flag for him to seek out a way to get rid of it.

Zed turned as the door to his room opened and someone entered. Zed recognized the figure as Mentiere. He couldn't say that was surprised, he knew that her motives for being at the order were different than the others. He never expected her to go this far though.

"Ah there she is! My right hand gal, she helped me set this thing up long ago." Zed's former shadow paused for a moment, "Wait...what did you do again?"

"Everything."

"That's right! Nothing important. But you've got spunk and I like that."

"What is she doing here. I trust it's more than gloating" Zed growled.

"Now aren't we the perceptive one." He reached back and grabbed something from Zed's nightstand behind him. The former shadow's voice lost its usual sarcastic tone in exchange for an usually series one. "She is here to get one of these." In his former shadow's hand was The Box. "It's a real shame, you have a whole order of shadow ninja's in training here. Yet only a handful actually have ever gotten a shadow themselves. Why is that?"

"She's not ready! None of them were."

"Yes we are!" Mentire shouted, "We are stronger than you think; but you wouldn't know that anymore with how often you disappear, now would you?"

"No! Why do you think none of the other students with shadows are still around!? They couldn't handle it, and look at what happened to me!"

"May I interrupt? Good. I know you two have...things you want to discuss and feelings or something to sort out, but I have things to do and I want to get to the real reason why we are here."

Then Zed's body opened the box, and Zed could only watch as a shadow came out and possessed Menteri.

"I would love to stay and watch one of my siblings being reborn, but I really must be off. Evil planning that must be taken care, you wouldn't understand." Shortly after that he left and only Zed and Mentiri were left in the room.

Zed could still remember it like it was yesterday, it started off as a chill running through your whole body. This was how the shadow gave you the ability to access its dark magic, Zed assumed that this was also when the shadow copied your physical appearance. Once it was complete it would rip itself from your body. The feeling was...intense to say the least. You felt pain everywhere, yet at the same time since it was metaphysical you didn't actually feel it anywhere at all. Your would burn from the pain, yet at the same time wherever the shadow touched as it exited your body would be chilled to the bone. He wasn't sure how long it took, it seemed to vary from person to person. Though if asked the person going through it they probably would tell you that it felt like an eternity.

So Zed sat and waited there for the process to be completed. He didn't think he would get any help from her when she awoke, but maybe he could get some information from her. At the very least he would make sure she wasn't left alone with the shadow from the start, he knew well how that ended.