It had been one day since the end of the tournament and Lupos, Lucio and Wing were waiting to go back to the school by carriage. Lupos sighed, although it had been his plan all along to let Lucio win and hide in his shadow he didn't plan for just how annoying Lucio would be when he supposedly "won". "My control was truly amazing, wasn't it Gale?" asked Lucio for the fifteenth time since they had come outside ten minutes ago to wait for the coach. 

"Yes," said Lupos smiling through gritted teeth "truly amazing." Wing turned his face to the side and tried not to smirk, it only got worse as Lucio put a patronising hand on Lupos' shoulder. "It's ok, maybe one day you'll be able to beat me." this apparently proved to much for Wing who had subsequently burst into a fit of silent laughter while tears threatened to stream down his face.

Luckily Lupos was saved from further interaction with Lucio by the arrival of Mervyn as well as the same carriage that had dropped them off. "Come along boys let's get back to the school I have some..." Mervyn trailed off and looked at Lucio "news..to tell you." Nodding solemnly all three boys nodded and entered the carriage.

Upon entering Lupos sat down next to Wing and Mervyn and Lucio sat opposite "First of all," started Mervyn "Congratulations on all making the top ten I never dreamed all three of you would make it," with this a pointed glance was shot at Lupos before he continued "you are now my apprentices as promised. However, it is because of this I feel I must warn you of the danger you may be in, what I am about to say does not leave us, not even to family." 

This time it was Lucio who received a pointed stare. Once all three boys had confirmed this plan with a nod Mervyn continued. "In truth, my niece is dead," Lucio gasped "and I suspect it was at the hands of a noble. Seeing as I am not politically aligned with any nobles they all keep an eye on me to make sure I don't ally myself with anyone else. Unfortunately my niece was set to marry Lucio, so I believe one of the Noble families didn't like the idea of bonds between my family and the Illio family and so had her assassinated." 

At this Mervyn stopped, a flicker of grief crossing his face "As my apprentices many will seek to use you for their own purpose. So I want you to think carefully before accepting any deals from ANY of the noble families, clear?" Lupos and Wing gave a quick nod while Lucio hesitated for a moment before adding his own nod.

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"Very good," said Mervyn a smile returning to his face "you have two days to rest before your training with me begins, enjoy it." that brought smiles to everyone's faces but each for their own reasons. "Fenrir, Jormugand, Hugin, Munin " said Lupos in mindspeak "Mervyn believes the death of his niece to be due to the noble families. See if you can get any information on the families as well as any incriminating documents I can use to frame them." 

""""Yes Lupos."""" came four simultaneous replies all dripping with bemusement. The rest of the way back was a silent trip with an occasional conversation with Wing, until eventually the carriage arrived back at the academy. "Well I'm gonna go rest up." claimed Lupos hurrying back to his room, as he burst into his room the sight of his four spirits greeted him.

"Any incriminating documents?" asked Lupos in mindspeak straight off the mark, Jormugand rolled his eyes "firsst of all do you even know who the Noble familiessss are?" Lupos shook his head slightly embarrassed and Hugin let out s laugh "there are five noble familiessss," continued on Jormugand "the Illio's, the Drae's, the Ceari's, the Hiyx's and the Yulg's. Out of the five families, plots to try and either harm the niece or bring her into the family can be found from within all five noble familiesss." 

Lupos laughed "Wow scheming nobles think alike! So we can pin this on any of the five families?" Jormugand shook his head "Anyone except the Illio's, they had too much to gain and nothing to lose from the girlsss engagement to Lucio for them to be framed convincingly." Lupos nodded "Ok so we frame one of the others, besides," the grin forming on Lupos' face could only be described as feral "I don't want anyone else stealing my prey." 

Hugin cackled upon hearing this. "Well said boy, we'll said." Munin just rolled his eyes and muttered something about "Idiots." under his breath while Fenrir and Jormugand laughed. Jormugand continued to smile then pointed to a document atop a large pile, "this is evidence against the Ceari family, they will be easiest to frame." Lupos grinned "let's get started." 

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Author's note 

Hiya sorry for the slight lateness of the chapter I'll try to write quicker from now on  :') hope you enjoyed the chapter feel free to leave a comment or review so I know how you feel about the story :)