Rahul slowly made his way further into the forest, leaving the Bolacsuk tribes men behind him. The trees surrounded him more and more densely and as the distance grew, strange sounds began to surround him.
"You know they're following you, right?" His ghost relative appeared next to him.
"Of course. Do I look that stupid to you grandpa?" He pulled his lips into a half smile.
"As a matter of fact, yes." The ghost next to him grinned, and Rahul almost jumped at his throat, but before he could start fighting with the ghost relative, a strange sound was heard from behind him, which made him turn around immediately.
"They are close." He muttered to himself, and then continued to move towards the depths of the forest, even more slowly and quietly than before, with the ghost relative in his steps. It didn't take long for the trees to suddenly thin out and a clearing to appear in the middle of the forest, at the edge of which the boy's feet rooted to the ground. Somehow a bad feeling came over him. "Something is not right." He whispered lowly and, surprisingly, the ghost relative standing next to him just nodded instead of speaking, which only made Rahul more nervous.
He had just decided to go around the clearing in the protection of the trees when three phosphorescent figures appeared across the clearing in front of him. Rahul nodded, realizing that at least the ghosts were there. His hand sliped onto his belt without thinking, and just one thought was enough for a pale purple sword hilt to appear under his hand. He didn't need more than that, he immediately pulled out his weapon, but before he could step out into the clearing, the spirit standing next to him caught his wrist and pointed to the ground with his free hand.
"Paralyzing array." He declared and sighed before looking at Rahul. "You can't go any closer, send your sword."
"Easier said than done." The boy growled at him, which only managed to make the ghost roll his eyes.
"Just close your eyes and concentrate on the vibrations." Although Rahul was not very confident that he would succeed, he did what the spirit asked him to do and closed his eyes, then began to take deep breaths. After a few seconds, he heard a strange rustling and opened his eyes only to see his precious sword, the pale purple Ghost Bell, floating in front of him. A happy smile crossed his face.
"It worked." He said, but his happiness didn't last long, because even though the sword rose into the air and when he thought of attacking the ghosts walking around the clearing, the weapon went to work, but for some reason, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't hurt the ghosts. This went on until the ghost relative got bored of the situation and stepped behind the boy to cover his eyes.
"The sword is an extension of your body, don't focus on its sight, but on its vibrations. Feel the sword like your own arm." Rahul heard his relative's voice right next to his ear and nodded, then he calmed down his breathing and really started to concentrate on the vibrations of the sword. Not even knowing that just thirty steps behind him, the group following him watched with open mouths as the boy flew his sword in front of them, as if he had been practicing the lifestyle of the hegins since childhood. However, instead of running out, the ghosts just kept getting more and more numerous.
"Why are they still here?" Rahul muttered to himself, when his ghost relative finally took his hands off his eyes, but the sight was not the least bit to the boy's liking, by then more than ten ghosts were standing in the clearing at the same time.
"It won't work like this. There are more than I thought." Rahul's relative shook his head disapprovingly, and the boy looked at him worriedly. "I have no choice." The ghost finally frowned. "Call back Ghost Bell." He gave the order and Rahul did as he was asked, and in the next minute the sword was again invisible to the eyes on his waist. "Take out the flute!" Came the next order and Rahul's eyes widened.
"For what?" He asked in a barely heared voice, but he only got an eye roll in response.
"Do you think I taught you how to play the flute all the way here as a joke? Take out the flute!" The spirit growled at him, but with such anger as he had never seen before, this was the biggest reason why Rahul, even though he did not understand why the instrument would be useful, still took it out of the small bag attached to his side. "Well, finally!" The ghost put his hands on his hips. "Now play the song we learned first!"
Rahul rolled his eyes but raised the flute to his mouth and started playing it like he did almost every day for the past month. A sweet melody left the instrument, the calm tones ringing clear in the silence of the night. The sound attracted the attention of all the inhabitants of the forest, and the spirits in the clearing slowly began to calm down, their figures began to fade and there were a couple that disappeared from sight, leaving behind a red butterfly. Next to Rahul, the ghost relative smiled at the boy with satisfaction, and not far from them, the hegins moment after moment were more surprised at the strange boy's abilities.
"Oh!" Rahul's ghost relative suddenly called out and the boy's blood froze when a strange figure appeared on the other side of the clearing. A young black-haired girl who looked to be barely twelve years old approached Rahul with her head cocked to the side. "What the heck is a wild maiden doing here?" The ghost gnashed its non-existent teeth, then took a deep breath and grabbed Rahul's shoulder. "I'm sorry, this will be unpleasant." He stated and as he finished, Rahul was overwhelmed by a bone-chilling cold at the speed of the wind. He felt his heart slow down, the sound of the flute also died down for a minute, he heard the crackling of tree branches behind him, but the next moment he took a deep breath, which he didn't want to take, and started playing again.
The Bolacsuk tribe members all stopped with their feet rooted to the ground when the boy started to play. Their newbie stood in one place with his eyes closed, his flute in his mouth, on which he played a song that the hegins had never heard in their lives, and if that wasn't enough, the wild maiden, this half-alive, half-dead creature that had risen from the dead, suddenly at the sound of the music fell to her knees and pressed her hands to her head. The hegins kept their hands on their swords and stared with open eyes at the phenomenon that unfolded before their eyes.
The tribesmen were about to stir when Rahul lowered his flute and, without opening his eyes, simply stepped across the paralizing array's line straight into the clearing, where he crouched down beside the maiden on the ground. Although Rahul was not the master of his actions, he was well aware of what he was doing, but he did not understand why he was doing it. This changed when he opened his mouth and instead of his own voice, the voice of his ghost relative rang out.
"Rest in peace and have a good journey to the Shadow World." The spirit whispered through Rahul's mouth, and then he felt his hands fall to the ground and the cold slowly left his limbs. Finally, he was able to open his eyes and to his surprise, a red butterfly flew in place of the wild maiden, which flew around Rahul, then disappeared into the night, and the hegins appeared instead. Rahul slowly stood up and turned towards them and looked at the surprised boys with his head tilted to the side.
"What was that and how did you do it?" Asked the leader of the team, before Rahul started scratching his neck and grinning.
"It was a simple liberation, what do they teach children these days?" Growled the ghost relative, who even now only Rahul could see.
"I have no idea." Rahul answered with a grin to both questions, which made the ghost relative laugh and the hegins even more surprised than before.
"You are something Rahul!" Citar suddenly hugged the boy's shoulders. "I'm sure they'll reward you when we get back." He stated. "Speaking of which, it's time to get back, can we go? It will be a lifetime before we get home." The boy rolled his eyes.
"Let's go." The leader of the team nodded and turned around, only to disappear from sight after a few moments, together with the rest of the team.
"Don't bother with them. They're just jealous." Citar patted Rahul on the back, who just nodded at his words. "Anyway, congratulations, it was a very nice liberation." The boy commented and started to go, leaving behind a surprised Rahul and the ghost.
"This kid is hiding something." Rahul's ghost relative declared.
"Maybe, but I don't think he wants to harm me." Rahul shrugged his shoulders and started after the boy, and the ghost relative became one with the wind again, leaving him alone.
As Citar had predicted, the team arrived back at Hegyfok's castle before the moon had climbed to the top of the sky. That may be why they didn't report to the chief that night, only the next morning, after they had all finished their breakfast and gathered in the great hall of the fort. The chief was no less surprised to hear the events of the previous night than his subordinates were when they watched them unfold.
"Mr. Rahul, if I ask you, would you let us do a test on you?" Came the question from the mouth of the tribal chief, when he had been told everything. Rahul hesitated for a few moments, he didn't understand why another test was needed when last night's moonwalk should have been the test, but finally he agreed to it with a deep bow.
So it happened that Citar led him to a room in the Hegyfok castle where the boy had not been before. The chief and Citar's team followed them into the strange room, in which there was only a rock rising towards the sky. The chief walked calmly to the rock and turned back to Rahul with a smile.
"Young man, come here." He gestured with his hand for Rahul to come to him, which the boy did. "Now sit facing the stone and press the palms of both hands on it." The chief issued the task, and Rahul slowly did as he was asked, although he constantly cast worried glances at those around him. Finally, however, he smoothed his palms over the rock, on which suddenly colorful engravings appeared, twenty-eight symbols in four different colors one after the other.
Rahul watched with wide eyes the phenomenon unfolding before his eyes. He was about to ask what had happened when red smoke corresponding to the color of the lowest seven engravings appeared at the bottom of the rock, which slowly began to rise, it absorbed the red engravings, and when it reached the first orange engraving, the smoke rose upwards, turning orange next. The eyes of the people in the room were all fixed on the rock in surprise when the smoke reached the last orange carving and instead of stopping, it turned yellow and continued to rise between the yellow carvings until the last yellow carving, where it stopped and did not move even after a minute.
"What does that mean?" Rahul finally asked when he could no longer bear the silence that surrounded him, but the faces of the people in the room did not calm him down. Finally, Citar broke the silence, when he spoke in a really low voice, with disbelief in his eyes.
"Solomonar seven stars."