Thin Ice (M/M Transmigration)

Chapter 2

It spanned two floors, with bookcases pressed into every corner and a massive wooden table in the middle of it on the bottom floor. There was a staircase up to the next one with a railing along the floor on the second as you could stand and look down over the table. Hanging from the ceiling of the second floor was a gorgeous chandelier that lit up everything but the dark shadowed corners. The entire thing smelled of old books and Cale lost his breath as he stared out at the wonder of it. It was like something he could only dream of.

But he had no time to marvel at the beauty of it.

He had three days until the tutor would arrive. He needed to catch up on all of Calla's knowledge before that. He could probably get away with forgetting some things, but he needed to have at least a working fundamental base by then.

Which wasn't made any easier just because he had read the book.

According to the book 'Fire & Ice', the magic came from three parts. The body, the mind and the soul. Calla had lost two of those. Who was to say he could even use magic now? While the body had retained its innate ability to channel ice magic, it was a different soul that occupied it along with a different mind. Cale might as well have tried to learn to swim by watching movies. In short, not a good idea.

But it was all he had to go on.

He started at the basics.

Pure magical power came from the soul. It was shaped into a particular kind by the body and the mind determined how it was used. The body was the same so the kind of magic he used should be as well. He could learn how to shape it by use of a lot of reading, meditation and feigning of having a tendency to forget to his tutor. It was the soul that was the problem. From the books, by all accounts but control, Calla had been fairly powerful. But for all he knew, he had jack shit of power.

And as mentioned in the books, you could use special items to increase the potency of your power as well as its magnitude, but that wouldn't solve anything. Not to mention that he had no idea where he could find one of these objects and it would also need to be compatible, meaning of the same element as his. It was written in the books that the protagonist, amidst growing up on the streets because his birth family didn't want him, had found one with a fire element and this was where his fate had turned around. He'd also been gifted another one from an ancient fire spirit as a teenager.

There was about a zero chance that he would find one as well.

Cale collected as may books dedicated to magic as he could carry and brought them over to the table. He was alone in the library, which was a blessing because he did not want to also worry about anyone would think of his recent fanaticism when it came to studying.

He spread out the books, pulled the notebook and pen closer to himself and began.

***

Three days later, Cale was more than ready to go back to his own body.

The floor was cold against his back where he laid on it in his bedroom. Opened books and scrolls surrounded him and his fingers were stained black by the ink he used to write with. His clothes were crumpled and the entire room had been turned into a mess by the intensity of his research bend. The clock that the maid had delivered and put up on the wall over the door said the time was about eight, but because it was the height of summer and he hadn't kept track of time, he had no idea if that meant eight in the evening or morning. He'd gotten so entrapped by the books and texts that he had completely forgotten to keep any kind of schedule.

Regardless, it had probably been about three days now so the tutor could arrive at any moment. For lack of anything else to do, he supposed he should clean himself up and make himself presentable.