Magdalena was a minor character in the book 'Fire & Ice'. She came from a family that was fairly well off but not at the level of Calla's family. Her elemental affinity was water and she was a childhood friend of Calla. They had pretty much grown up together and Magdalena was even a candidate for his arranged marriage.

But in the end, nothing had come from it. Magdalena's father had gotten a better offer, from a family with a candidate that wasn't constantly ill and stuck in bed.

Nevertheless, Magdalena and Calla had maintained a pleasant, if a distant, platonic relationship.

However, Cale hadn't met this young woman since his transmigration. This was why he was so surprised when he saw her waiting outside his room when he returned for the evening. For a moment, he got a severe case of deja-vu.

Then he shook his mind loose and tried to smile at her.

Unlike Julius, this was a person who had spent a lot of time with Calla. The same as his family, she would be one of the first people to notice anything off about him and just the thought of it was nerve-racking. Bluffing wouldn't be of much assistance when dealing with a force of nature like Magdalena Nightgrove.

When she saw him, she smiled. "Calla! I haven't seen you in forever, have you been avoiding me?"

"No, no." Cale walked over to her and gripped the hand that she held out. "I would never. I've just been so busy with my studies. I'm so far behind, you know."

He did his best to seem unconcerned as if that was really all that it was. And to an extent, it was even true. Cale had spent the last several months virtually drowning in books, desperate to catch up to Calla's level. In a world of magic, there was no room for mistakes.

It would kill him.

"Come on, let's talk. Invite me in." she insisted and Cale didn't know how to deny her.

Honestly, avoiding her hadn't been that difficult. They weren't in the same year, had none of the same classes and their circles of acquaintances didn't interact. All that he had had to do was just stay in his lane and there wasn't any problem. He didn't even have to go out of his way for it.

Cale hid his sigh in a smile and unlocked the door. "Are you sure it's alright? Aren't you engaged?"

She giggled at him and said, "Everybody knows I can kick your ass. It's perfectly fine."

"If you say so."

Cale opened the door and led the way in. He deposited his bag full of heavy books on the desk and sat down on the accompanying chair while Magdalena sat down and bounced a little on his bed. She leaned back on her hands and stared at him with a look that he couldn't decipher. Cale frowned in response to it.

She hadn't figured it out already, had she?

"You've been spending a lot of time with Julius lately." she finally deigned to speak.

"Oh." Cale nodded and bit his lip. "Yes, I ah... suppose so. Is it a problem?"

"Not... exactly." She appeared to be frustrated. Her brown eyes rove over his entire room, including all of the messy corners. "It's just that – well you know that Julius likes Sayer, right?"

"Mhmm." Cale nodded. He was painfully aware of this.

She leaned forward and continued, "Aren't you worried that it's just a ruse? That it's all a plan of Sayer's to find a way to discredit you and get the lordship?"

Cale didn't know what to say to that.

He scratched at his eyebrow and gazed out the window. Trees were swaying down below, the wind gently drifting the clouds above in the sky. The night was already falling, darkness laying heavily over the castle. Cale sighed and brought both his hands down to his lap, squeezing them together.

"I don't know." he simply stated.

She sighed at him. Magdalena pulled her brown hair behind her ear and stared at him with disturbingly clear eyes. There wasn't a hint of the easily deceived character that was described in the novel, and for a moment, he couldn't help but hope that she was someone who had transmigrated as well. But no, that was a futile hope that would only bring him pain.

Magdalena smiled wearily at him. "If you don't know, why do you keep spending so much time with him?"

He shook his head and smiled ruefully, "I don't know."

She sighed once more and fell back on the bed with a loud thud. Cale watched as she stared with tired eyes at the ceiling. He could almost see the cogs in her head turning, but he had barely an inkling of what she was thinking. Sure, he had his suspicions of Sayer, but they were only that. Suspicions. He hadn't spent any time with the male protagonist since coming to this world and the man's relationship with Calla was never examined in the book.

As much as Cale would like to wave away the concerns as completely unnecessary, he couldn't. And as much as he would like to be able to say with certainty that Sayer had had nothing to do with Calla's death in the novel, he couldn't. And without those answers, Cale couldn't afford to let down his guard.

If he wanted to have the relaxed life he was seeking, he first needed to survive. Unfortunately, that wasn't easy.

It was blatantly unfair, really.

He put his elbow on the desk in front of him and leaned his head on his hand. His eyelids lowered in response to his exhaustion. Dinner was already over and he would have been asleep by now if it weren't for his unexpected visitor.

Finally, Magdalena sat up again. She looked him over and quirked her thin lips in what he thought was amusement. She rose from the bed and dragged a hand through her short hair, flicking some stray wisps out of her eyes. Walking forwards, she laid a hand on his shoulder and patted it.

"If Sayer or Julius tries anything, know that you can come to me, okay?"

Cale couldn't help smiling. She wasn't threatening to murder him, so he assumed that he had managed to act like Calla. The relief filled his chest with a light feeling and the knot in his stomach finally unraveled.

"I know." He nodded to her and squeezed her hand in gratitude.

She smiled back at him and left.

"Haah..." Cale breathed out heavily in relief, sank back in his chair and leaned his head back on the back of it. He stared up at the ceiling. It was nerve-racking, being around characters who had known Calla. His studying had revealed what happened to people thought to be possessed and really, he did not want to go through that!

It was terrifying. This world was vicious. Savage. Absolutely merciless and Cale was just an ant waiting to be stepped on.

He closed his eyes.

Magdalena Nightgrove was just a minor character. She didn't have an arc of her own and her development as a character was minimal. Truly, it was as if she was only there for a single purpose, to help Sayer out when he found himself thrown in prison without a trial. Magdalena's husband — now fiancé — would become a well-regarded defense attorney.

And that was years after Calla's death.

Truly, Calla was a pitiful character. Dying so early and uselessly for what amounted to essentially no reason at all.

He opened his eyes again and pushed himself out of the chair. Outside, night had fallen completely. Stars and two moons twinkled through the window. It was no longer a thing that surprised him when he looked outside and saw the second, smaller moon.

Besides, the beauty of the two moons on the night of the Moon Festival had been heavily described in the novel. He found that he was looking forward to it.

Chucking off her clothes, Cale went through his nighttime routine entirely on reflex. His body knew what it was supposed to do and did it, even with his mind so occupied. He ended up getting some toothpaste on his cheek, but nothing worse. At long last, he could go to sleep and rest his mind.

He wondered what he would dream about.

Cale curled up under the covers and exhaled a deep breath. Was Julius really just hanging around him in order to fulfill some order of Sayer's? He hoped not. Despite it all, Cale kind of liked the younger boy.