Upon hearing Fenrir's message, Lupos quickly turned round to face Wing and Lucio. "Hearing about Lucio's wonderful performance has inspired me to train harder, so I'm going to leave for now and do some special training!" it was a weak excuse but one that Lucio would be likely to buy and to be honest at that minute he obviously had bigger things to worry about.

Running as fast as he could out of the arena, Lupos tried to speak to all his spirits. "Hugin, Munin has the man seen you yet?" ""No"" responded Hugin and Munin with simultaneous responses. "Good you two stay out of sight. Fenrir I also need you to stay hidden. If the man escapes the only thing I want him to remember is that I have a snake spirit, it'll make it harder to identify me."

"Yes Lupos" came all threes response. "Good, but still be nearby in case we need the back up. Jormugand how close are you to the target and where are you now?" "Very clossse he'ssss ten metres in front of me but I'm staying out of hisss line of sight. I'm round the back of the hotel we're staying in, it seemsss the man caught sight of you earlier and came to check out your belongingssss."

Lupos thought about that for a second "good job Jormugand do not make contact until I arrive. The man killed a pack of shadow wolves so he must be strong." "Yesssss Luposssss". Running as fast as he could Lupos soon arrived at the hotel, "Jormugand is he still round the back of the hotel?" "No he's just going into your room, now."

Lupos nodded and quickly removed the necklace Darius had given him long ago to limit his dark magic to stop it showing. "Ok, I'll distract him while you poison him. It'd be unwise to try and take him in a fair fight." without waiting for a response Lupos silently dashed upstairs and burst into his room without warning. Sure enough in the middle of the room stood a man dressed from head to toe in black.

"Who the hell are you and why are you in my room?" asked Lupos feigning ignorance, the figure in black looked at him surprised "You've got quiet footsteps kid." Lupos glared at him "answer the question." The man looked at Lupos hesitating for a minute. "Honestly boy, I work for forces you would not want to get involved with. I'll give you some advice seeing as you seem a promising talent, pretend you never saw me."

Lupos continued to stare at the man "why are you here?" The man took a step back towards the window preparing to jump out of it when he noticed a sudden stinging by his ankle. Looking down he saw a large green snake with it's teeth firmly sunk into his ankle "Shit" the man started to say more when he collapsed on the floor.

Seeing the man was knocked out Lupos let out a sigh of relief and quickly hurried to bind the man's hands not wanting to take any chances. "Good job Jormugand. Ok, Hugin Munin can you see anywhere close by that we could go where we'd be unnoticed when interrogating him?"

Lupos heard a pause as the two looked around "Lupos there's a small forest about two miles away to the east which is deserted by anything save for magical beasts." Lupos smiled "Good job, ok Fenrir I need you here now." "On my way." stated Fenrir as Lupos continued to tie up the man's feet and legs as well as placing a gag on his mouth.

Several minutes later and Fenrir burst into the room. "Good job Fenrir, now I need you to carry this man to the forest two miles east from here. Hugin Munin please cause a distraction in the reception area so Fenrir can sneak out unnoticed. Fenrir feel free to use shadow magic."

Fenrir grinned wolfishly and Lupos dragged the man's body and laid him over Fenrir's back "Ok Fenrir I'll follow behind you, so go as quickly as you can into the forest." Fenrir nodded and suddenly Lupos heard screams "Help these crazy birds are attacking us, someone get your beasts under control!"

Lupos laughed "go Fenrir I'll see you soon." at that moment Fenrir disappeared into the shadows. "Ok Jormugand I'm going to smuggle you out in my bag again so it'll be quicker to get to the forest." Jormugand hesitated a minute like he wanted to say something then smiled and slowly nodded his head "yesssss Luposssss."

Fifteen minutes later, all four spirits and Lupos had arrived at a clearing in the forest with the man still unconscious on the floor. Slowly and methodically and without speaking Lupos tied the man to a tree with both rope he found as well as the natural vines and sap in the forest to create a stiff bonding, impossible to escape.

Smiling in satisfaction Lupos sat down "Ok Fenrir, Hugin and Munin you guys can go hunting for a while, it should be ten more minutes till he wakes up and this might take some time. Bring some food back for me and Jormugand if at all possible." The three spirits nodded and slowly retreated back into the forest while Lupos sat down with his back resting on a tree opposite the man.

Jormugand quickly joined him as he coiled around his neck. "Jormugand can I ask a question?" Jormugand looked at Lupos in surprise, this was a first "yesssss what issss it?" Lupos nodded "are you spirits having fun?" Jormugand looked at Lupos confused. "Well it's just that when all of you have been summoned, you've all said that you'd come because I seemed interesting so I was just curious."

Jormugand nodded "yesssss, being by your side is enjoyable and it certainly hasss been interesting so far." Lupos laughed "glad to hear it." They sat in silence for a few more minutes before Lupos decided it was high time he saw the face of the man who was looking for him. Removing his head cover he came face to face with a young man in his twenties with red hair and bright blue eyes.

Feeling the breeze on his face, the man started to stir. "Glad to see you're awake." said Lupos in a mocking tone as the man awoke and looked panicky for a couple of seconds, when he realised the head cover was gone and then turned to glare at Lupos.

"As I'm sure you can tell the snake curled round my neck is also the one who bit you and my summoned spirit. Unluckily for you he has three different toxins running through his body, one can knock you unconscious, which is the one I used to get you here. One can create an agonising torture but still leave you alive, barely, and the third means certain death."

Upon hearing this the man looked at Jormugand with an expression of fear. "So here's how this is going to work, I'm going to ask you a question and you are going to answer it. if not my spirit will inject his second poison into you leaving you barely alive. The choice is yours."

The man looked at Lupos with resolution in his eyes. "And one more thing, don't think your employer will be running to help you. Now that I've seen your face your are worthless as a spy. All I need to do is give your description to Mervyn under the pretence you attacked me and you'll never live another peaceful day in your life - so think carefully before answering."

The man gritted his teeth and lowered his head knowing the boy was right. The people he was working for didn't get as high as they did by being careless. Having his face revealed was the same as a death sentence in his line of work.

Sighing the man looked at Lupos firmly in the eyes "Ok kid if I'm going to die anyway I may as well help you, what do you want to know?" Lupos grinned savagely. "First of all was it you who killed a pack of shadow wolves in the great forest?" The spy shook his head "No, but there were several of us sent out to find the person we're looking for."

Lupos nodded "Ok then, next question who are you? And why are you looking for me?" the man took a deep breath and resolved himself "I'm an assassin from the imperial clan, we work directly under the Emperor. However, two months ago the Emperor issued a command to find a boy with your description."

"Why?" asked Lupos honestly curious. He might be planning to kill one of the most powerful magicians in the empire but he hadn't done anything to warrant this kind of attention yet. The man shook his head a helpless expression on his face. "No one knows for sure but there are three rumours circulating about it if you want to hear."

Lupos nodded. "Well rumour number one is that the boys the Emperor's illegitimate child. But, I highly doubt that because then the Emperor would simply hide the child or have him killed off. He certainly wouldn't bother searching for the child with such care. The second rumour going around is that he has some sort of magical treasure within him. But, that one's also unlikely because again the Emperor would just have him assassinated and take the treasure, besides we were given very clear orders to take the child alive."

The man paused for a minute. "That leaves the third rumour, apparently, a servant in the palace had a child with extremely high potential to become a dark magician he was also........." all of a sudden the man stopped speaking as he turned and looked around. "Kid you better leave now, they're aware I've been captured and they're coming to kill me to avoid leaving evidence. it's a shame I wasn't able to help more."

Lupos nodded. "Thank you, do you want me to do it, it'll be quicker." the man nodded. "Thanks kid" moving very quickly Lupos cut the man's throat and ran. "Fenrir, Hugin, Munin we're going back to the hotel, come quickly be sure not to be caught." Upon arriving at the hotel Lupos briefed the rest of his spirits on the information he had received as well as explaining the spy he caught was not the same as the one who killed Akari's pack.

"Make sure you stay on alert, now that one of them is dead, more will be sure to follow. At least we got some valuable information though and we know who's after me though not why." Lupos sighed "oh well let's get some sleep for now. Fenrir you'll be fighting with me in the duels for the next two days so make sure you're rested." Fenrir smiled "Rodger that." Lupos smiled "Ok night everyone" with that Lupos fell into an oblivious sleep.

...................................................................I.........................................

Two miles away in the forest.

Two figures were standing in front of the body of their fallen comrade. "Any idea what killed him?" asked one of the figures who had just arrived. "His throat was slit with a knife before he arrived, mind you he got off lighter than if we had found him alive."

The first figure sighed. "That's the fate of those who have their faces discovered, there's nothing to be done about it. But still the Emperor won't be pleased. Number five said he had finally found a child that matched the description provided, but judging by number fives death, I'd say the child was far more formidable than we first imagined. Luckily only numbers one through three have any significant information, so if it was the child who killed him, he won't have found out anything too important."

The second figure nodded. "Right you are number two. Anyway let's go back and report." the man, number two nodded and suddenly the two men vanished leaving nothing but an empty clearing.