2: The second chance

The pain was gone all at once. My chest felt light and airy as I breathed in deep breaths of fresh air.

How could things be so peaceful? Something was wrong. I was meant to be in pain. I was meant to be in the throws of death. How was it possible that I could feel so good?

I opened my eyes. I was laying in a beautiful room dimly lit by candlelight. Carved chairs were placed by the fire on top of large thick carpet. There was a small balcony that let me look out at a beautiful night sky and a thick forest. The bed I was laying in was luxurious too. Thick soft covers far too big for my small body.

I uncovered my right hand from the covers and saw how small it was. It was still chubby with child fat. It was as if I was only a few years old.

I spotted a mirror on the far side of the room. I hastily jumped off the bed and landed with a thud on the floor. I hadn't expected the height of the bed to be as tall as me, nevertheless I quickly recovered and dashed across the large room on wobbly legs to the mirror hanging on the wall.

I stood and gawked at myself, or rather, the person I had become because I was definitely not in the body of the 'bloodless witch'. The child staring back at me in the mirror was not Jane Devoe.

The mousy brown hair I had always been ashamed of because it was a sign of my comm blood was gone.

Instead my small head was adorned with silky strands of the darkest blue black hair I had ever seen. Even more shocking was the colour of my eyes, bright blue that practically glowed in the darkness of the room. This child was astonishingly adorable with a cute button nose and a small pink mouth. She had all the features I envied as a person who had always been considered ugly.

I reached forward and touched my face through the mirror. I was a young child, maybe only five years old. But my hair and eye colour were solid proof as to which family I belonged to.

"Kantheus." I whispered as I stared in awe at myself in the mirror.

Kantheus was the name of a Ducal house of the mighty Bhaltair empire that ruled most of the continent.

Kantheus was a particularly famous family because of their incomparable power that rivalled the royal families of other kingdoms.

Their signature blue black hair and eye colour that ranged from pale blue to bright blue was easily recognizable across all the kingdoms.

As the best mage of the Belsante Kingdom, I came into contact with the Kantheus family members a few times because they often spoke on behalf of the empire. I would never forget their crippling heir of superiority as they talked down to the royal family of Belsante as well as everyone else they deemed unworthy.

Kantheus were not the same as the nobles of Belsante who were mostly corrupt and acted pigishly.

Kantheus nobles spoke like gifted orators and seemed to have the same level of intellect as those who had been devoted to research for their entire lives. They were famous for their swordsmanship and I had personally seen the head of the family in the midst of battle. He could slice people up like butter. I would say that the only thing they weren't outstanding in was magical power. However, they were by no means lacking in magic power either, because a few of the family members were a part of the imperial mage society.

All in all, Kantheus was one of the most feared and respected names on the continent.

I thought back to the magic circle I had performed. 'Second chance' was the only description for the ancient dark magic that was long lost in translation.

The circle had given me a second chance by placing my soul in the body of someone else.

I had studied magic for all my life but had no idea that magic was capable of something like this. Ancient dark magic was truly unrivalled in power compared to other types of magic. That's why I had been so eager to study it when the board members suggested that I researched it. Who knew that those dogs only suggested I do that to try and frame me.

In the end what they used to make me a criminal was what saved me.

If I was truly a Kantheus child, then I was in a position of power. It was a name I could easily use to take revenge on the Belsante kingdom with.

The only thing that bothered me about my transmigration was what happened to the real Kantheus child who this body belonged to?

If death was the price, had the magic killed this child to make way for me? That thought troubled me. I was fine with killing myself, but the thought of causing the death of an innocent little one was disturbing.

But if that was so, why did the circle take the life of this child and not someone much closer to me at the time. If the magic could just kill anyone, why not kill and put me in the body of the person standing closest to me? Why transmigrate me to a body in another kingdom?

Muffled voices leaked into the room from the slightly ajar door. It sounded like people were heading my way.

It was obviously late at night and perhaps this child had a strict bedtime.

I quickly ran back to my bed and struggled to hoist myself back onto it. With a jump and pivot manoeuvre I finally managed and then scrambled under the covers and placed myself in the same position I had woken up in.

I closed my eyes and listened to the muffled voices standing outside the door.

"How long does she have?" A man asked in a surprisingly blunt and indifferent tone.

"I'm afraid the young lady is very ill…" A younger man replied first nervously. The power dynamic between them was obvious just from their voices. The first man held authority over the second.

The first man said. "Tell me honestly."

There was a strained pause from the younger gentleman before he said, "She may not last the night… But if she wakes up she will live."

That's when I noticed the bottles upon bottles of medicine stacked on the bedside table. And the tray of medical equipment on the other side of the bed. The doctor was talking about me. I was the sick girl who might not last the night.

Contrary to his words I felt fine, but this little girl must have been gravely ill before I was placed inside her. Perhaps she already died. Maybe she died around the same time that I died in Belsante, perhaps my soul was sent all the way here because she died at the same time as me.

This was all only conjecture, but somehow it seemed right.

The door to my room opened and warm light spilled into the dark room, the light in the doorway cast a dark silhouette of the figures standing there.

Seeing me wide awake, a young bespectacled doctor rushed over to me with shock plastered all over his face.

They came in so suddenly that I forgot to pretend to be asleep again.

The doctor pressed his fingers to my wrist and listened carefully to my heartbeat. His eyes lit up as he studied my pulse. He stepped away from my bedside and turned back to address the man in the doorway.

"I'm astonished, my Lord." He said breathlessly. "She is doing much better. Her pulse is strong. She is out of danger."

I turned to get a look at the lord standing in the door and met with a pair of unmoved icy blue eyes that I had seen before. I recognised his strong jaw and black hair that was starting to grey at the roots. The deep frown lines on his forehead that proved he had spent most of his life frowning.

The man was none other than Duke Amaris Kantheus. I truly was related to the duke.

He stared me down and turned to eye the doctor.

He said, "Do not drag me up here for meaningless things again." The duke promptly turned and left the room, for some reason irritated that the child was not dead?

I could not believe the uncaring attitude the Duke had shown towards me. Although I was too young to be the duke's child, I was definitely a family member of his. How could he be so unemotional about my illness. He even went so far as to chastise the doctor for making him come and see me…

From my previous interaction with Kantheus I knew they were a callous bunch, but I never thought they extended that treatment to their own family.

"My apologies." The young doctor bowed solemnly as the duke walked away.

When the doctor turned to me he had a cheerful smile on his face. He sat on the edge of my bed and placed a gentle hand on my forehead.

"You really made a stunning recovery." He chuckled. His features looked so soft in the warm light leaking into the room from outside.

"I thought we had lost you for a moment there." He said.

I stared up into his kind eyes. I could probably count on one hand the number of times someone had treated me this kindly in my life.

My eyes started to feel hot and moist. Tears threatened to spill out of them. After those hideous mages came together to try and enslave me, and my friends just stood by and did nothing to help me, having this sudden kindness shown to me made me overflow. Perhaps I lost control of my emotions after becoming this child.

The doctor looked down at me pitifully. He said, "Please don't be sad about what the Duke said. He wouldn't have come up here to check on you if he didn't care about you." He reassured me and pinched my cheek.

"His words just now were a little harsh because I made him worry about you. He was upset with me, not you, Seraphine."

So my name was Seraphine. Seraphine Kantheus.

I nodded my head to let the doctor know that I was okay.

He stood up from the side of the bed and picked up a suitcase that was on the floor beside my bed.

"I'll check up on you tomorrow with a new prescription. Rest well my lady." He said as he left the room.

This little scene left me puzzled as to the situation of this little girl. She was a Kantheus but the duke obviously did not care for her, he seemed to disdain her even. There was definitely more to the story that I didn't know.