It was the beginning of the third day since they had returned from the inter schools competition and the end of the two rest days. Not that Lupos had done much resting, over the past two days Jormugand, Fenrir, Hugin and Munin had been sent to spy on different branches of the Ceari family to find more incriminating documents as well as certain...objects.

Waking up Lupos stared around his room to see all four of his spirits back in his room sleeping soundly, an evil grin emerged on Lupos' face. He silently tiptoed around the four spirits and moved towards the bathroom, filling up four cups with water Lupos moved back towards his room and silently used his shadow magic to hold each of the cups above a spirit, and watched as the cups silently tipped upside-down emptying the water onto the unsuspecting victims.

The silence was broken as cries of protest and vows of revenge filled the room as each of the spirits faced Lupos with a gaze full of annoyance as he laughed at the misfortune that had befallen them. "Well," he said ignoring the glares "at least none of you need a bath now!" this was all the invitation Fenrir needed to start shaking like an oversized dog promptly soaking Lupos while the other spirits laughed, their vengeance appeased.

Lupos smiled for a moment before his face turned serious "Ok on a more serious note, is there anything we can use for blackmail or framing the Ceari family?" all for spirits nodded "They're a bad bunch this lot is," growled Fenrir "murder, extortion, bribes." Lupos nodded a gleeful expression appearing on his face "and the rest of you found the same?"

The remaining three spirits nodded in time and Jormugand slithered closer to Lupos "I have what you asssked for." Lupos grinned "perfect. Now first of all does anyone know whether of the head of the Ceari family is a magician and if so what his spirit is?"

Munin nodded "Yes he is and his spirit is an air falcon." Lupos' grin widened "Great, we're now ready to put the second stage of my plan into action, Hugin I want you to use light magic to create an illusion that makes you look like an air falcon. During Mervyn's lesson I am going to spot you by "accident" and then you are going to fly off in a panic."

Jormugand slowly smiled "Clever, sssomeone as informed as Mervyn will no doubt know all the Noble families spiritssssss." Lupos nodded "exactly and if a high ranking nobles spirit turns up around the same time Mervyn's convinced a noble killed his niece it will look suspicious to say the least. Not only that the variety of different ways Mervyn's niece's guards were killed should indicate a large group with several spirits at their disposal, and seeing as how several were killed with the obvious markings of a beak this should further indicate the Ceari family."

All five grinned "On another note," continued Lupos "Munin I want you to run an errand for me." Munin nodded "Of course, what's the errand." Lupos looked away while Jormugand grinned and flashed Lupos a knowing look "the small squirrel like magical beast we saved from Mervyn's niece, Jormugand has got into contact with him and he's agreed to be a messenger for me. I need you to watch over him the first time he runs the route to make sure the message isn't intercepted, you are however to prioritise your own safety."

Munin nodded "first of all when do I leave?" "Today," answered Lupos sharply "a magical beast and a spirit should be fast enough to journey there and make the return in a single day." Munin nodded once more "the location and recipient the message is to be delivered to?" At this Munin noted that Lupos' cheeks gained a faint red shade "the destination is the magical forest the recipient is Akari."

The four spirits simultaneously broke into grins and shot insinuating glances at Lupos "Not Darius?" asked Munin faking an innocent look, well as innocent a look as a raven can make "no, not Darius," said Lupos refusing to rise to the obvious bait despite his ever colouring cheeks "this is just a test run so it can go to Akari." still smiling with a mischievous look in his eyes Munin grinned.

"I'll leave immediately, I should be able to find him." Lupos smiled relieved that the spirits were dropping the subject and gave Munin the message "Give this to the magical beast and watch over his journey, while you're at it see if you can find out its name for conveniences sake." Munin nodded the mischievous look still in his eyes "anything else you want me to pass on to Akari?"

Lupos shook his head firmly although his cheeks still contained a hint of blush "no, the message is all." Munin nodded "Of course, I'll enjoy having a nice looong chat with Akari when I see her before I return. I'm sure she'll enjoy hearing about all your bad habits and flaws." Lupos' eyes widened in panic "unless of course someone wants to apologise for waking us up with cold water and face a penalty."

All four spirits grinned an evil glee entering their eyes while Lupos nodded somewhat frantically "What do you want me to do?" the four spirits faced each other grinning "well now, I believe there's a lake in the middle of the forest near here. Why don't you jump in it and we'll put the matter behind us?" Lupos' eyes widened once more but his voice remained level "you mean the lake filled with magical crocodile beasts?"

Munin nodded clearly savouring the moment "That's the one, you have at least two hours before your lesson with Mervyn. Better run quickly." at that moment Lupos saw a terrifying illusion before him, it almost appeared as if there was four Darius's.

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Author's note

PLEASE READ

Hi to everyone reading I'm sorry for the late chapter and I'm just writing to say that from Monday onwards I will be on holiday for two weeks with a friend so I may not have time to update the story. I promise I'll definitely try to post a chapter during the holiday but I may not have time so I hope you'll forgive me. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and oh my God over five hundred people following my story, thank you all so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)