Some effects allow movement "as if adjacent" e.g. .
If it matters, the controller of the movement effect decides the cardinal direction when a unit is moving “as if adjacent.” For example, if you have a active and you want to move your through it, you can choose to consider the movement horizontal and Move Freely, even if the two squares are not the same row. Similarly, a could step through a Waypoint Portal to a square in a different column by declaring the proper cardinal direction for the "as if adjacent" movement.
Units moving "as if adjacent" do not cross any borders. Therefore, a would allow you to circumvent a or , which look for crossing borders.