Chapter 23: Damn you Xerath.

"Lord Xerath, where are you going?" Azel's voice questioned.

"Places." Xerath replied, attempting to make a joke. "I have business in Ionia which I must attend to. You should be fine practicing your magic on your own now. When I get back, I want you to have mastered Hornet Shards."

"Oh come on! That spell requires over a thousand conditions to generate, and controlling the shards is even harder."

"You require another demonstration?"

"Well it is really awesome to watch a good Hornet Shard spell. I've seen a couple expert mages pull of some really cool firework performances. So a demonstration would be nice."

"Very well. I too enjoy showing Hornet Shards off. I find it to be a really fun spell and it is also the introduction to advanced Projectile Swarm spells. One day even a dunce such as yourself might be able to master it."

Xerath had gathered enough influence in the League to establish a small spell firing range in his dormitories.

There were obviously restrictions on what sort of power the spells could be fired, but they had been condensed down into one rule.

No big bangs that could upset the neighbors.

Due to the null-magic materials interwoven into his concrete dormitory, upsetting the neighbors was fairly hard to do. This let Xerath try all sorts of experiments when Azel was not around such as arcane fusion containment. But that experiment had not gone so well when Azel's diary had gotten partially burnt. She really loved her diary.

Her stern talk with Xerath later had confirmed that.

The two stood at the far side of the range, looking down at the wooden targets that lay at the other end of the range.

"Pay attention now Azel, I will do it only once. I'm even going to make the Shards luminescent so that you do not completely miss their formation."

Manipulating the range controls, two targets took their places about thirty meters away from the two and another ten apart.

"Your mission is to hit both of those targets using only four shards at their heads and central torso. That is what I want from you when I come back."

"Example?" Azel raised her eyebrow at him in expectation of his awesome spell.

Xerath sighed. "Very well then. Watch closely. You may want to stand back a bit."

Xerath concentrated for a second, consolidating himself.

Raising his two hands, tiny shards of twirling azure light sparkled around him, each humming with their own pitch.

"This is the first step, conjuring the projectiles. Now we designate a target and trajectory."

The shards stopped twirling, poising themselves like daggers at the two targets ahead.

"Now we unleash the swarm." Xerath concluded.

With a rapid motion of his hands, the shards accelerated rapidly. Their glisten sparkled down the range, embedding themselves in the wooden targets.

"Happy?"

"I thought you were going to do it with more power." Azel pouted with disapproval.

"Oh, you want something better?"

"You know I do instead of this kiddy sparkly sh*t."

"Like this then?"

Motioning his right hand, the air thrummed with a thousand crackles of light. In but a moment, air rushed across Azel's face from the recoil of their launch. The wooden targets were bathed in the azure light for an instant before disappearing from existence, leaving only the smoking ruin of their bases.

"Good enough?"

"Damn right."

"I expect you to be able to do that when I come back."

"WHHAAAAAAAA! OH COME ON MASTER! YOU KNOW I DON'T LIKE THAT KID SH*T!"

"Then you should practice it like an adult. Anyway, I must get ready to set off. I believe the Northern Ionians say 'Sayonara' at this point."

"At least bring me back something good from those markets I hear about."

"You assume I will ever enter a market? Ha. I doubt it."

"You should at least get me something for when I master the Hornet Shards."

"I'll get you a sticker saying 'You did it!' with a smiling face on it, then proceed to brag about your success at the next work meeting at how much you've grown. Does that sound good?"

"…"

"…"

"Shut up."

Xerath arrived at the convoy well clothed and prepared. To anyone who did not hear his reverberating and inhuman voice, he was like an average run-of-the-mill brooding protagonist with a likening to dark clothing. But the clothes did serve a purpose other than appearing completely bad-*ss.

Reducing his arcane signature would assure Syndra and other magically aware Ionians that Xerath did have magic, just not so much as to be considered a threat to their safety.

Ahri was signing a board that one of the Summoners had given her, her slightly more serious expression suggesting that it actually was paper-work for the expedition and not just some random fan who wanted an autograph.

"Ahri." Xerath called out to her, "Are we all set for this exotic trip?"

"Its just Ionia," Ahri replied. She had traveled throughout Ionia during her search for what she was, so very few places in Ionia had the same spark of amazement than that which tourists had such as Xerath. "Not that impressive."

"Better than unending sand dunes."

"Those are better than the same forests for entire miles."

"At least there is enough fauna and flora to keep one entertained."

"Of which twenty percent can kill a man with their poisons, not counting several others who can just gulp down a man like a sweet."

"Do you know me as a man who will let that happen?"

"That is what they all say before they all get killed by tripping into a pit of venomous snakes."

"I am an arcane being, so venom does not apply to me."

"Ionia also has some weird anti-magic poisons as well, so it can apply."

"Not when I can neutralize the poison with over twelve giga-joules of magical energy."

"…"

Ahri's face went blank.

"You win this round." Ahri sighed in defeat.

Ahri liked these sort of back and forth quick-fire conversations to see whoever would mess up first. For her it was incredibly fun and relied on quick wits, of which she had plenty. But Xerath had his own wit that was on par with hers.

Thanks Tabia.

"So, yeah, we are just about ready to set off for Glassgown. Just need a couple more minutes for everyone else to get ready. Merchants are just so slow sometimes."

"The Institute is reducing their costs by using a merchant convoy?"

"Its easier than making a new one for this fairly simple adventure. We'll just be heading over to a port anyway, so there's no real point making an official expedition. Even when we get to Ionia, we'll be getting merchant rides most of the way. I don't exactly want to walk all the way to Yamanoryu."

"Have you been there before?"

"Yeah, pretty good place. It's far away from the Ionian Council's influence so there are fewer political sh*theads around. Then again, the place is very… superstitious. They do not like weird sh*t going down in their city. Magic is nonexistent in the place, and magical beings are often frowned upon. If one thing goes wrong, it's the damn magicians fault, always. Just like when Summoners blame their junglers for things that occur on the other side of the f**king Rift. That happened once to me and I got a whole sh*t storm dumped on me. Also there are dragons."

"Dragons?"

Oh great, just one more thing to think about.

"Well you can tell from the name can't you? It is literally 'the mountain of Dragons', except some idiot messed up their use of the genitive case. It's pretty much the last city in Runeterra where Dragons are considered acceptable, mainly because the Dragon bloodline living there actually respects humans. People pilgrimage from across the world, so the security there is absolutely ridiculous."

"When did you last visit Yamanoryu? Surely your participation in the League would have eliminated all charges."

"I did have a life before the League, you know. I," Ahri stopped for a second and thought about that tumultuous time before she entered the League. "It was during the Ionian Invasion by Noxian and Zaunite forces seven years ago. Those were some pretty hard times for everyone. If anything, it made my experiences in Ionia worse because 'SHE'S DIFFERENT! SHE'S DEFINITELY A BAD GUY!' thing that people often do whenever sh*t goes down."

Ahri's fist clenched slightly.

Xerath had heard about the Ionian invasion, a time of great catastrophe for Ionia. Ionia had managed to fend off the two invading nations with their arcane arsenal and the power of Dragons. Turned out the Dragons were real after all.

Xerath had never considered much in terms of Ionian culture and history, but Dragons were the ultimate beasts of war.

Dragons are significant threats to an enemy force. There are few other creatures with such a domineering presence.

Armor that could shrug off even the broadside battery of a battleship, immense talons and teeth that could rip through even the hardest Demacian steel, a breath that could carry all manner of intense magical energy capable of rendering armies to dust and an intelligence to understand all manner of combat tactics.

Not to mention that the vast majority of them can fly.

Noxus, with their focus on a bulk steady advance with artillery support, had been rendered useless by the air superiority provided by Dragon strikes and local guerilla forces.

Zaun had a different strategy of using Search and Destroy missions to eliminate targets of opportunity in order to support the Noxian advance through Ionia. Their strategy had caused significant dismay to many in their cold and heartless strikes against both military and civilian populations, but it was an undeniably effective strategy that had swayed many key victories in the favor of Zaun and Noxus.

Ahri, as well as the vast majority of Ionian champions, had either been significantly affected or had proven themselves during the conflict. It was a harsh reality.

A horrible time to live in.

Xerath felt pity for them.

Having destroyed the glory of his country, it was easier to understand the tarnishing of another.

"Ah! You are the two from the Institute right?" A fairly large and round man called.

The many jewels he wore on his person compared with the other modest tradesmen suggested that he was in charge of the operation. The man was hobbling down the cobbled road with some difficulty.

"Yeah. The convoy is ready then?" Ahri quickly questioned, wanting to get rid of this newcomer unless he actually had some worthwhile news to tell her.

"Name's Daefyd Grigor. The convoy is indeed ready, milady. We'll be setting off very shortly." The merchant panted before spying Ahri's figure.

"In the meantime, who might this beauty before my eyes be?"

No worthwhile news. Get out of here, pig.

"Ahri. And that hooded crystal there is Xerath." Ahri declared quickly wanting rid of this man.

"Well diamonds are a girl's best friends after all. Hahaha!"

He even cracked a bad joke. Xerath please take a hint here.

Xerath took the hint.

"Diamonds can be mass-produced via arcane transmutation of graphite. I prefer to be described as sapphire or onyx. Slightly more prestigious in my opinion."

A scientific term to shut him up. Something Ahri approved of against this pr*ck.

"Alright then." Daefyd looked significantly shocked by the talking crystal scientist. "I'll get the convoy going then."

Daefyd made his way to the front of the convoy fairly quickly. Ahri found it slightly amusing how this merchant tried to run yet only fall face first into the ground, turning his face red from the abrasive stone.

"He was far too annoying anyway. I bought us quite a bit of time. Hopefully enough to last the entire journey to Glassgown."

"Thanks I guess, that guy is a total d*ck. Hate people like that."

"You should learn science. It makes everyone shut up because they don't understand basic scientific terminology."

"I don't exactly get that sort of thing. Especially when you talk about numbers, numbers are too hard."

"Mathematics is amazing! You can prove all manner of relationships with formula discovered decades or even centuries ago. Obviously some of them are relatively hard such as functions, but they all rely on the basics to produce an indeed fascinating answer. Mathematicians do use a lot of jargon to describe it though."

"Yeeaaaa…" Ahri accentuated. "That stuff is pretty ridiculous."

"So shall we get a move on?"

"Yeah, that's a good idea."

The two Champions moved on to the back of one of the wooden wagons.

"ALRIGHT! WE ARE MOVING OUT!" The voice of Daefyd called out.

With a clatter and jolt of wooden gears, the convoy started their journey to Glassgown.

"Ahri, would you like some liquid dihydrogen monoxide?"

"Isn't that poisonous or something?"

Xerath held up a water canteen to her.

"Gods damn it… Just stop that already."

"No mercy." Xerath laughed.