They stood together, examining the crystals Taric had given them.

'Hmmm, I wonder...' Zed flipped the crystal, which was flat, about half an inch thick, 2 inches wide and 4 long. It was in a pouch that had a clip attached to it, probably to hang it on a belt. The pouch had a hole in the side, letting some of the crystal, which had a burgundy coloring, show. Zed brushed over it with a finger, and it turned scarlet, the same color as Diana's.

"You can communicate with them in colorcode, meaning, if you, Zed, were on ruby colored, Diana could talk to you by changing her crystal to ruby, and talking into the crystal. Works with all color hues. These have hues of red: burgundy, scarlet and ruby." Ryze explained. "You can clasp them to your belts"

They did as instructed and Shen said, "We should get going. I say we pass on the west of the Ironspike mountains, then cross them just before we reach Freljord, and then go to Piltover and take a ship from there."

"If we go to Piltover," Diana said. "The zaunites might try to stop us from leaving harbor. We should go to Freljord."

"If we go to Freljord, we might not be able to leave, and it's very dangerous. The snowstorms, or even the Winter's Claw, could stop us."

As Shen and Diana argued about the route to take, Zed stood a bit apart, gazing at the rising sun, and lost in thought.

'It's been so long since I've been on the road with someone from the order, or even someone else, for that matter. Last time was with Akali doing recon near Noxus...'

"Its to dangerous to go near to Noxus, if we go to one of the city-states, we should go to Demacia, but then we would have to sail around the entire of Valoran." Diana was saying.

"We go east." Zed cut into the argument. Both Shen and Diana turned to him, suprised. And even Ryze raised an eyebrow at Zed. He had been standing nearby looking at them, but now he asked Zed "Why would you want to go to Noxus? They won't help any quest to help Ionia."

"We're not going to Noxus, we're going east." Zed said. Diana looked at him quizzically, but Shen seemed to be thinking about it. It was hard to tell what he was thinking behind his mask, but that was the reason Zed wore a mask himself.

"We can't go near Noxus." Shen said. "They won't help an official party going to Ionia, and if they find us sneaking through their territory, they'll arrest us. It'll be hard even for the summoners to get us out then."

Then it seemed to dawn on Shen: "The safehouses. You want to use them."

"Yes" Zed answered him, while Diana and Ryze looked confused.

"Not possible." Shen told him. "The safehouses were abandoned. Most were even destroyed by the noxians when they found them."

"Akali and I used used one that was off the grid, even to the Ionians. We found it there, and used it because ours was discovered. We practically stumbled upon the entrance. Noone could have found it unless they knew where it was, and it seemed absolutely abandoned when we found it."

"Oh yes, your mission in noxian teritory. Akali never mentioned you found a safehouse." Shen seemed sceptical about what Zed said.

"Wait a moment," Diana cut in. "What safehouses are we talking about here?"

"The Kinkou order..." Zed began, but Shen cut in: "Thats of no importance right now. Where was the safehouse?" He asked, turning back to Zed, "And how do we use it to get through the entire noxian territory?"

"Not at all, but we can use it as a stepping stone, we can then pass through the Abyssal Pass. From there we can head east to the coast. There are many villages where we can find a ship, and probably many good smugglers to get us to Ionia quickly." Zed looked at Shen and Diana, seeing them stare at Zed, Diana with a shocked expression.

"Zed," Diana started. "If we go through the Abyssal Pass, we'd go underground. Far underground. The darkness lingers there, so thick that even Ezreal turned back. And if these beings are in Ionia, a place filled with light magic, they'll be there as sure as the moon waxes and wanes."

"We go east," Zed said. "Darkness might be their element, but the shadows that will be there as well will even the odds for me, and even you." The last part he said looking at Shen.

"Just trust me on this." Zed looked directly at Shen, and he knew, that Shen was fighting with himself, an impartial discision, as he was trained to make, would say that he was not to trust Zed, and even if his emotions took over once, he would rather kill him than follow him some place he was more powerfull than the Eye of Twilight.

Then Shen suprised Zed with his answer: "I will follow you Zed, for the good of Ionia, and maybe Valoran and all of runeterra, I place my life in your hands, lets go."

And with that, he turned on his heel and went to the next bluff, looking eastwards.

Zed and Diana looked at each other, then at the professor next to them. They thanked him, and he wished them a good journey. They then went to Shen and started.

'And so, on the road again, with a brother i lost, and an agent of light, whom i would never have trusted...'

AN: suprise, I'm back! Yes, i'm actually still alive, and yes, this chapter was LONG in the coming, and the fact that my backspace key went missing didn't really help me... Oh well, shit happens.

Now, I'll warn everyone who might actually still read this, uploads will most likely be inconsistant, and i might go over the earlier and change some (a lot) of the things i don't like.

we'll see how it goes, and until then