Thin Ice (M/M Transmigration)

Chapter 2

Calla Frosthaze was a male character that appeared in the popular book 'Fire & Ice'. They were young and sickly with a lot of ice magic but no real control over it due to so often being bedridden from illness. In the end, they died from poison when they mistakably ate food from the male protagonist's plate and couldn't fight it off.

In short, they were cannon fodder.

The truly horrible thing was that the protagonist was never in any danger of dying, as due to his potent and powerful fire magic, any poison that entered his system would simply be burned away. Calla died for nothing in one of the villain's schemes to kill off the protagonists. It was one of the things that made fans of the book cry in despair, because Calla had been quite a popular character due to his delicate looks and intelligent mind. It was just that the male protagonist was their cousin, so they inevitably ended up drawn into the villain's deadly grudge.

And Cale now inhabited that body.

The body that was destined to die from poison.

Well, shit!

Cale stared at the woman as she sniffled to herself with tears of relief. If he remembered correctly, this was the mother of Calla that only showed up at his funeral without a tear to be shed, Mariana Frosthaze, a woman of noble standing who got into a verbal fight with the female protagonist who didn't think she was sad enough at the passing of her son. But if she was crying of relief just because he was outside, that probably wasn't the case.

She sniffled quietly again. "Come, my son, sit down. You need to be careful of your health."

She sat down on one of the chairs, her red dress swishing around her feet and Cale found himself sitting down as well before he knew what he was doing. The chair was comfortable, white wood with a pale blue pillow on it that he leaned back against. It was soft and Cale liked the color.

The woman stared at him intently with eyes wide and searching. Cale was unsettled by the intense look, but he did his best to bear it. He had seemingly taken over the body of her sick son, the least he could do was to get along well with her. "How do you feel? Are you sure you should be outside?"

Cale let his eyes drift back to the beautiful garden as he answered. "I feel alright, mother. And I want to be outside. It's a beautiful day, after all."

She stared at his eyes and said, "If you are sure. But don't do anything strenuous, dear."

Cale turned his head and looked at her for a moment before he smiled softly and replied, "I won't."

She smiled at him gently and stretched out her arm to squeeze his hand with a tearful gaze.

"Now tell me, how are your magical studies coming along?" she asked.

He gulped and mumbled an embarrassed, "Not that well, mother."

She searched his face and Cale got the feeling that she could see into his very soul. He really hoped that wasn't the case, because then she would know that something was wrong, but he couldn't think of anything else. In truth, he had no idea how Calla's studies were going, that was never revealed in the book, only that he had a hard time controlling his magic. Cale could only hope he had answered correctly.

"Hmm..." she started and continued with, "school will start up again come autumn. Perhaps we should hire you a tutor until then to get you caught up with the rest of your class. This is your final year after all and you're already two classes below your age."

"That... could be a good idea, mother."

***

The library was huge.