"It all started not long after we crossed the Karrabata mountains, into Madüjawr." The ghost-man began the tale and looked into the distance to return to the world of the past. To his first life, to the time when the Immortal Mist was just spreading its wings.
The troops of the great Athira finally reached the land from which they had no plans to go further. And the troops traveling in different times began to wait for each other. General Csito's team, with the Teike children, also arrived in this waiting. There was a lot of commotion around them, they met a lot of new people, but this did not mean that the children had escaped their training with their parents.
"Okay. Listen, children. Now I will teach you how to form a ghost alliance. It would not hurt for any of you to have a reliable weapon." Etele announced, standing in front of the three Teike children and her son. Naturally, the young people watched his every move with excitement, so their father showed them how to draw the summoning circle with which to summon a ghost.
Etele had been working for years on a surefire method to bind the ghosts so that they wouldn't suck everyone's energy and make them die young. By the time they reached Madüjawr with Csito as their guide, he had succeeded, so it was only natural that he would teach his children the ability. To his greatest joy, all four children were able to draw their summoning circle successfully and the power of the ghosts became immediately felt.
To Etele's surprise, it was Kele and Laik who summoned the strongest ghosts. He wasn't that surprised about Kele; the older of the twins had always been particularly skilled, but he wouldn't have expected Laik to be able to summon such a ghost, when he couldn't stand either his training or his mother's. This development was a pleasant surprise for the táltos.
Keche's ghost, although not the strongest, was definitely a terrifying sight as it towered over the little girl, like a protective bulwark. And then there was Kamu, staring wide-eyed at the ghost of the grinning brown-haired boy in front of him.
"Not the strongest, but..." Etele began. "Children can be very dangerous if they want to be." The táltos shrugged. "Okay, children, then offer the contract now, as I told you." Etele encouraged them, but unlike his siblings and Laik, Kamu just looked angrily at the boy standing in front of him.
~ What's wrong, you don't want an alliance? ~ He heard the now familiar voice in his head, which didn't belong to the child at all.
~ What the Fene are you doing, Teike? ~ Kamu demanded and clenched his hands into fists, whereupon the child rolled his ghost eyes and folded his arms in front of him.
~ I can make myself appear at your side at any time like this. So can we do it? ~ He asked and perhaps, if no one had been watching them, Kamu would have argued with him further, but he had to act before his father noticed that something was wrong.
~ Let it be for the ghosts sake! ~ Kamu growled, causing the ghost to grin at him and grab his wrist. The young Teike boy didn't feel anything special, but when the ghost let go of him and disappeared, a strange pattern appeared on his wrist.
"What is this, father?" He looked up at Etele, holding his hand.
"This is the alliance sign. This will ensure that no harm comes to you." Etele said proudly. "We don't want to be seen as weak in the great Athira's troops." He winked at the children, but it was clear in his voice that he didn't care how great a leader that certain Athira was.
The children's father had never really cared about who was in the leadership position. Kamu had heard the other soldiers' astonished tales more than once about what his father would allow himself to do around General Csito, and he had also heard tales about how Etele had summoned the daimon king's right hand, General Orchidea, against the man before joining Csito.
Kamu had only seen the daimon himself once, his father rarely summoned this trump card, but no one was surprised by his decision. General Orchidea was able to strike fear into the enemy with his appearance only. Even Kamu stayed away from him, and it wasn't even necessary for Teike to warn him to stay away from him.
After the lucky ghost alliances, a new kind of training for the young men began. After that, not only Etele, but Inepta also helped them learn to deal with the ghosts. While their father could show them how to perfectly summon ghosts anywhere and at any time, and how to get rid of them. Inepta on the other hand was able to explain how to control them in battle so well that after a few weeks of practice, it was an easy task for all of them.
It was then that it really became clear to Kamu that although General Csito's two táltoses usually poked each other and did not get along in anything, when necessary they complemented each other perfectly. Everyone was aware that Etele was the stronger táltos, the man himself too, so his fighting style was mostly based on power. He didn't have to exert any influence on the ghosts to make them do what he wanted. He just had to think about something and the ghosts obeyed him.
Inepta, on the other hand, was amazingly skilled at influencing the ghosts around him with as little kí as possible, which he taught the children to do as best he could. As he always told them. "Not everyone is as lucky as Svihák to have a sea of kí. We have to learn to use the current of the river."
Kamu had never heard anyone call his father Svihák besides Csito and Inepta, not even his mother, so he was sure that the name was something special between the three men. Something that no one else could understand. So he didn't even care where it came to ir. His father didn't like it when Inepta called him that anyway, and when he heard it, he usually chased the other táltos around the camp. Although, to be honest, Kamu thought he didn't like the name from Csito either, but from the camp lord, he seemed to tolerate it.
As time passed with the training and the arrival of Athira's troops, Kamu's assassin alliance slowly grew. With the help of Ajtony, there were almost twenty-five of them, who eliminated anyone on request. At the same time as Kamu's allies grew, Kele and Keche's circle of friends also grew. Kamu had been very protective of his siblings from the beginning, and this had not changed even then, so he often looked askance at the young people their age who were hanging around his siblings.
"Kamu, you're coming to dinner with me tonight. Keche is going to brother's. I'd like to introduce you to some of my friends." Kele burst into their yurt that afternoon.
"Are you sure this is a good idea? We have to get up early tomorrow to get there in time for Athira's speech. You know mom will chase us through the forest if we're late." Kamu shook his head.
"Ah, we won't stay long. Tomorrow will be a big day for all of us. We'll finally have a home." The older twin said enthusiastically.
"Not yet, but we're heading there." Kamu corrected, and his brother waved.
"That doesn't matter! The point is, we're going to dinner tonight and you're not escaping from it now." Kele announced, then simply left Kamu alone in the yurt.
"It would have been better though." The assassin sighed as he left the yurt after his brother to take his usual afternoon information-gathering nap. In light of what had happened, he thought that maybe, for once, he would actually get some sleep.