It was a great idea.
Every movement was noticed and Jhin couldn't even turn around without waking his neighbor up. The burlap sack along with all important items were kept out of reach, if his prisoner would make a move in its direction he would have to play tug of war against a man two times his size. Shen expected the killer to antagonize him back for this, to try and hurt him in any way, but so far he didn't. Jhin even stayed still for the rest of the night.
Sunlight broke through the treetops and announced the day, Shen got up and pulled the other on his feet with him. For a moment, both stared at the device and Shen noticed the look Jhin shot at it and him.
He had locked the device, through magic, onto his own body. He had to use his own body to unlock it. The reason Jhin couldn't escape was, that the very being trapped was rejected by the magic within.
Shen took a deep breath in when he faced the coming revelation of his mistake, touched the side of the device to unlock it, and...
Fffsshhh...
It came off of his arm. Shen puffed the air out he was holding in with relief and closed his eyes for a second.
The other man chuckled and tilted his head. He seemed to expect something to happen. But not what happened next.
The trap locked back onto Shen's arm as he placed it there and pulled Jhin closer to him.
"We are going west for now." Was his simple order as he already turned to pack his belongings.
Jhin grunted in disbelief as he had to follow up every movement the ninja did and did so begrudgingly. This way it wasn't even possible to control their traveling speed, he had to speed up now or fall over to get dragged along.
West meant deeper into the forest and far away from the next civilization, so far that you could scream on the top of your lungs and be unheard. The thought of the danger that Jhin posed still crept at the back of Shen's head but also the importance of keeping him out of everyone's view.
Sometimes the killer kept the same pace, sometimes he walked behind him, out of sight. Whenever he walked next to Shen he would glance back at the Eye of Twilight as if his eyes could convey a lengthy message of all his complaints to him. Just now Shen started to feel weird having him that close all the time, half of his head exposed safe for the face itself. The hair used to be well kept but thanks to the night and the lack of time to care, more loose strands of hair fell to his sides.
Jhin cleared his throat as Shen got caught staring.
"My apologies, I just like to remind myself that you are actually human," Shen commented as he looked away. "Everything you do feels like an act."
It was true, all of Jhin's movements were streamlined, thoughtful and every word he ever muttered could belong to a theatre script. Seeing imperfections on him, like sweat, rustled clothes or hair and even birthmarks felt like they did not belong to this personage of a perfectionist serial killer. Of course, Shen would not point out flaws to him. That could end badly.
"Then I like to remind you that I also have basic needs." Jhin suddenly replied.
Shen stopped in his tracks. "Ok, what do you want?"
"Water, for a start."
"Ah."
In retrospect, Jhin didn't get any food or water since he had caught him and that was about a day ago. Shen started to feel bad about it, while he did not appreciate Jhin as a person he should have cared about him as a human more. The ninja reached for his sack and pulled his flask out, offering it to his prisoner.
"You could have asked sooner," he commented.
The flask was gripped dramatically out of his hand and the killer pushed his mask aside to take a sip. Conveniently or deliberately to Shen's side, so that he couldn't see his face.
He had seen glimpses of Jhin's true identity before, back at the Spirit Blossom festival when he had been disguised as a commoner. But never up close or in detail. Shen would say he was curious to see the face behind all this terror, but he wouldn't pry for it.
The flask was emptied and tossed back at Shen who caught it quickly. He wouldn't pry for a 'thank you' either, it wouldn't be worth it.
"Thank you."
The ninja stored the flask away quickly as he felt something creeping up his neck.
"This is not the way to Tuula prison I can tell, so what are your plans for me?"
Now it was Shen's turn to keep quiet. Of course, Jhin would notice, but he didn't expect him to ask if even chat with him at all. The years before he had been used against Noxians as an assassin, he was feared as he was hated in the country and Jhin was aware of that. Revealing information about the trade had no benefit for Shen, it would possibly even made everything worse as it could greatly anger his prisoner.
"Oh, we try to be secretive now?"
Jhin's amused voice pulled Shen out of his thoughts.
"Depends, what were you doing in that cave?" Shen replied.
If the killer started to be more talkative, he could at least try to get some useful information. However, Jhin just huffed and remained silent.
The heat coming from the burlap sack started to become uncomfortable but Shen would not switch it to his other side as it would be too close to Jhin. After some time it became downright unbearable and he reached in to pull the orb out, observing its shiny surface. The glassy hull felt like a heated teapot in his hand, just cool enough not to burn him. Shen observed the red fog inside hoping for any new clues but found nothing, other than that Jhin was looking at it, too.
"Agh!"
Out of nowhere, the heat rose severely and Shen let it drop out of his hand under the sudden pain.
As it landed on the grass it started to turn the ground into glimmering coal, sizzling and creating smoke blowing up. Jhin jumped aside as far as he could with his restraints.
"What are you doing?" The killer hissed at him.
"That wasn't me!"
Smoke turned into glowing mist, the glowing mist turned into red fog surrounding them. It was silent but Shen evaded it just in time. Something had reached and tried to hit him and the next blow was aimed at Jhin who was pulled aside by the demon trap as Shen leaped away. The thing moved through the fog like a snake but one could see bark and leaves on its body.
"The trees..." Shen gasped.
Crowns of trees rained down on them, beating the ground repeatedly as if they wanted to scare them away. It was hard to navigate through the barrage as both men had different ideas on where to and how to evade the blows. In an attempt to stop the event, Shen pulled Jhin closer to the orb, their shoes burning on the glimmering earth beneath, then he turned around and activated his spirit vision, pulling both into the new view.
The trees were magical but dark, darker than usual as if there was no sun shining on them. When he looked back at the orb he found nothing, it seemed to suck all light around it out of existence.
"This isn't normal. The spirits are not enraged but also not peaceful."
Shen pulled his Spirit blade out and cut the first tree branch launching at him, then the next coming from behind. His blows were weaker, he could only use one hand as his other arm was still attached to his prisoner. Now he agreed that it was a terrible idea.
Three more aimed from above while one large root tried to sneak from the ground to immobilize him, Shen got ready to strike as all movement suddenly stopped. The colours returned to the bark-like blood running back into its veins.
"Truly fascinating," Jhin mumbled more to himself
Shen turned around and snatched the orb out of the killer's hand with a shocked gasp. He yelped and let it drop just as quickly as it burned his hand the moment he held it, thankfully Jhin just caught it before the ground. The golden armor that Jhin wore made a noise that Shen could not recognize but it was clear that it helped him holding the orb despite the heat.
His hand was still hurting, however, he wanted the orb back as quickly as possible as he didn't trust the killer with its possession. With one movement of his arm, She pulled the other man close and opened the burlap sack with his other hand, gesturing Jhin to throw the orb inside.
"It will burn right through, I believe," Jhin commented calmly.
"You are not keeping it. See what just happened, I won't risk any other disturbance!"
Their eyes met and Shen noticed a glimmer in the killer's look.
"Tsk. Is it easier to blame everything on me?" Jhin held his armored arm out, further away from Shen to emphasize that he won't return it so easily. "I'm a risk in your eyes but the world shall see me as a chance!"
"No! Don't use it!"
Shen leaped forward to snatch it out of his hand but failed as Jhin used the trap to pull him back.
"You want to burn your other hand?"
"I said give it back!"
"Not until you find something else to carry it with."
His voice got lower, threatening. "It will burn right through. I can feel the heat even through my armor and I won't imagine what it will do to my tools!"
"Of course..." Shen wanted to slap him so badly. "Propose something better then! Or I will kick your knees and take it by force, I couldn't care much about your weapons!"
The threatening voice turned to a growl, then suddenly became soft again.
"Your flask. Remove the top, fill it with water and I let the orb drop inside."
Shen thought about it for a moment. It made sense, the water would insulate from the heat if it wasn't evaporating too fast and the flask was big enough to hold the orb, just the opening was too small. The next river, however, was a long walk away.
"Deal, but keep it in my sight." Shen sighed.
Jhin hummed amused, the ninja took it as an agreement. He pulled the killer closer again, then turned to look around with his spirit vision. Nothing seemed out of order, nature was harmonizing with the spirit world, safe for the spot the orb had laid before. Darkness had sprouted from it but stopped after a meter in radius, the coal-like surface remained as a consequence of the magic. Shen wondered what it could mean and why it had happened, as it also reminded him of the warning of Hechlurii.
"The darkness that does not belong..." he thought to himself. "...even when the sun..."
Shen looked up and saw the two suns of the spirit realm and the physical world lighting up the day. The spot of darkness reflected nothing of it, he let his hand gently rub its surface to see any refractions.
"Are we moving any time soon? I might drop this thing as well."
Again, Jhin pulled him out of his thoughts.
"Yes, I was just checking on something. The next river is up ahead, but it is a detour from the original road." Shen looked back at his prisoner, holding and observing the artifact. "Is it burning even through your armor?"
The answer was just a mean look, maybe just a reminder to hurry, so the ninja just accepted the silence and moved forward.
Back on the way Shen tried to keep a steady pace but became slower over time to adapt to his prisoner holding the orb with one hand. Pulling him too harshly would risk him losing grip on it, or taunt Jhin to drop it out of spite which he didn't rule out as a possibility. The killer also needed to adjust his arm over and over again, sometimes he needed a pause to let the arm rest on the nearest boulder or tree branch as he held the orb away from his body. The heat seemed to be persistent. It took longer than initially planned, especially since they needed more breaks, and the sunlight started to fade away. Shen decided that this would be the last break before reaching the Quo'wenn river and offered half of the last supplies to Jhin.
"I will need to hunt tomorrow, so expect to be alone for some time."
Jhin hummed as a reply. Since the event with the trees, he had turned silent again and Shen felt somewhat annoyed by this change of behavior.
"It will be an hour at best until we reach the river, so keep up the pace this time and you won't have to carry that thing any longer." He tried his best to sound pacifying.
As the killer had emptied the flask before, both had gone without water for half a day, reaching the river was a top priority for multiple reasons by now, for both of them. Shen had also noticed that Jhin grew tired and wasn't keeping up as well as he would before. He pulled both to their feet as soon as the meals were finished and nearly rushed the remaining way, sighing in relief when the first sounds of water gushing down a stream could be heard.
It was almost dark when they reached the river, just enough light to figure out a safe spot for drinking water, refilling the flask, and cutting its opening to secure the orb after all this time.
Of course, Jhin would let it drop in his dramatic fashion, with a flick of the wrist it plunked into the water, making it almost boil the second it submerged.
"Finally." Jhin was relieved as well as he was annoyed at the situation.
The resulting steam turned red and shrouded them in until Shen waved it away and closed the leather flask with a string. He held the bag in both hands and felt its surface heat up under the influence of the artifact.
"I feel the water bubbling."
"I can certainly smell it boiling."
The ninja took a breath in as Jhin commented it and noticed the faint remains of something burning, the hot steam, and a familiar bitter smell of ... nightshade?
"Well, we can set up camp now. This seems to work." Shen looked at the flask and decided that it will hold the heat in it.
"Of course it does." The killer was self-assured.
This time the Eye of Twilight asked a large overgrown tree for its roots to sleep in and it would form them into mossy beds for both of them. He also decided that he had enough of being glued that close to his prisoner and secured the demon trap onto one of the tree roots instead. Night was already setting in, Shen was more than thankful to fall asleep somewhat peacefully after what happened and hoped that their trip will be over soon. Jhin had also settled to sleep with his back turned to the ninja, seemingly just content to get some rest as well. The leather flask laid next to his burlap sack far out of reach for the killer, bubbling from the heat, slowly leaking red steam into the air.
