Storming down the familiar paths without stopping, it was only a matter of minutes, before Lupos had arrived in a clearing in the centre of the forest. Within the clearing lived a small hut. Without even thinking about it Lupos ran towards the door and opened it.

Lupos was just about to call out when he felt a knife pressed to his throat "Darius?" Lupos asked before he felt the knife lower. Turning around, Lupos saw an elderly man with a lean body and sharp eyes "Darius!" exclaimed Lupos again happily hugging the old man. 

Darius sighed aloud but was smiling all the same. "Damn brat, I could've killed you if you weren't careful." Lupos laughed "no you couldn't, besides Fenrir would have helped me." "Fenrir?" asked Darius in confusion before he spotted the large silver wolf by my side. "Bloody hell Lupos anything else you want to surprise me with, I can't sense that thing at all." 

Lupos smiled "he's my summons so you shouldn't be able to sense him. As for surprises, I have one more summons on the way, a snake named Jormugand." Darius's eyes widened "Fenrir and Jormugand...." he muttered under his breath.

"Darius what is it?" asked Lupos but Darius just shook his head "doesn't matter much but anyway why don't you tell me why you're suddenly here?" Lupos looked at Darius and started to tell him everything that had happened since he had joined the school.

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At the same time about three miles away from Darius's hut, Jormugand had safely infiltrated the Illio's estate. After exiting the carriage the snake had proceeded to worm it's way throughout the floorboards looking for any information that might be helpful as well as keeping an eye out for the black figures. 

He had been crawling around for approximately ten minutes when he arrived in the floor under a large richly decorated room. Within the room a tall and imposing man with blond hair and green eyes sat before a kneeling figure in a black garb "interesting," thought Jormugand "this man's different from the other two figures before at the academy." 

Staying silent, Jormugand started to listen to the two men talking. "Greetings Lord Illio, as you well know I am here on behalf of THAT PERSON to ask a favour." started the man dressed in black. Lord Illio smiled slyly "how unusual for that person too ask me a favour, what is it?" the man dressed in black nodded. 

"He is looking for a boy, this boy would be around eight years old and have murky blue eyes and black hair. Any information other than that is unknown." Lord Illio nodded looking much more serious now "I don't suppose you could tell me why he is hunting this child?" 

The other man shook his head "I have been informed I am to tell you nothing on the subject." The Lord nodded once more "understood. I thank you for travelling all the way here, are you staying with us for the night?" the man in black simply shook his head. 

"My gratitude, but I must be moving on as there are others who need to hear this message." After saying that the man disappeared into the shadows leaving the Lord on his own. "I wonder who this boy is and why he warrants HIS attention." Murmured the lord under his breath as he walked out the room. 

Still beneath the floorboards Jormugand pondered over what he had just heard, "just now they had been describing Lupos hadn't they?" he thought as he tried to make heads or tails of the situation. 

Sighing he decided to ask Lupos about it later and instead snuck out between the floorboards and started looking for any information about Mervyn Oakshield in the room. After searching for about five minutes he located a pile of reports about Mervyn Oakshield hidden in the walls. 

Looking around to check if anyone was nearby, Jormugand started to transform into a humanoid shape which looked like a young boy with jade green hair and slitted golden eyes with pale green scales on his arms. Jormugand smiled quietly it had been years since he had used this form and even Lupos didn't know about it.

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Picking up the papers on Mervyn, Jormugand used magic to quickly conceal himself and walked out of the gate into the forest. 

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Back in the hut Lupos had just finished telling Darius his story while Fenrir interjected with points to tell him about Lupos' apparent sucking up to nobles. The three had just finished laughing when Jormugand slithered in with a pile of papers in his mouth.

"Jormugand did you find any information on Mervyn?" asked Lupos as Jormugand dropped the paper by his feet and slid comfortably around his neck "yesssss Luposssss." Lupos smiled happily and picked up the papers while Darius looked at Jormugand curiously. If one was to pay attention they may have seen something that looked like a silent conversation flicker between the two. 

Darius let out a sigh of resignation still staring at Jormugand "as you will." he muttering under his breath, however all mutterings were cut off with Lupos's sudden intake of breath "shit," he said unhappily "Lupos what is it? Did you find something?" asked Darius. Lupos nodded "we have less time then would have liked" Darius looked at him curiously "why?" according to this Mervyn is planning to summon a fish spirit in one year's time so he has one spirit for each of his affinities." 

Darius looked at him gravely "if that is the case I would suggest you speed up your own summoning, I would try it in two days time if I were you. It's a full moon which should help you." Lupos looked at him confused "a full moon? Why would that make a difference?" Darius shared a knowing look with both Fenrir and Jormugand "just a hunch, anyway I have some good news." 

Lupos looked at the evil grin that had just appeared on Darius's face and shuddered "seeing as you're here for the week, I can help train you at night!" A terrified expression appeared on Lupos' face as he recalled Darius's idea of "training". Looking at his spirits for help he saw both of them turn to avoid eye contact while trying to hide their grins. 

However just as Darius was about to drag Lupos outside to start training, Jormugand stopped them "Luposssss there'sss something I forgot to say." Lupos looked at him curiously and nodded at him to go on. "While I was looking for information about Mervyn I overheard the Illio family head speaking to a man dressed on black." 

Lupos stiffened "It's not the same spies from the academy is it?" Jormugand shook his head "No but he gave a message saying his master was looking for an eight year old boy with black hair and murky blue eyes." Lupos frowned upon hearing his own description "are you sure?" Jormugand nodded. 

"Do you have any ideas who he may be or why he may want me?" Jormugand shook his head "they didn't say." Lupos nodded "Ok, good work Jormugand. Tomorrow I want you and Fenrir with me at the estate, I need you to replace the information so no one realises it's missing and also use mindspeak to warn me when the head is coming, if he's looking for a boy with my description then things could get messy." 

His two spirits nodded and he was just about to say more when Darius grabbed his arm an evil look on his face. "let's start training." That night screams of pain could be heard from the forest.

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HI guys finished another exam and just about finished writing this chapter hope you enjoy I'll try to write again after my geography exam tomorrow but I can't promise anything :) please leave a comment.