The Ancient Magus' Bride (2015)
[魔法使いの嫁]
Volume 4
Author/Artist: Kore Yamazaki
Publisher: Blade Comics
Synopsis:
Lindel tells Chise about how he first met Elias.
Story/Characters:
We open with a brief scene back in England with Renfred, via a messenger bird, urging Elias to let Chise attend the College, where the sorcerers train. Naturally, Elias isn't interested in letting her go. This plot thread will be picked up again later. We head back to Iceland where we pick up Lindel's story. He takes Elias to his teacher Rahab, who's the one who gave Elias his name and charged Lindel with taking care of him. We then have an incident where Lindel goes to help a village in exchange for provisions, only for a child to see Elias lurking in Lindel's shadow and the panic that ensues. Although Elias' memories are fuzzy at best, he confides that he believes he's eaten humans before, that his nature occasionally compels him to do it, though it's usually easy enough to suppress. This jibes with what happened in Elias' room, something Chise wasn't actually fully asleep for. However, the thing is that unlike so many of the things from the other side that have frightened Chise throughout her life, she's never been afraid of Elias and this revelation doesn't change that. Lindel tells her to tell that to Elias, and that both of them are guilty of not properly communicating with each other.
The next day, Lindel puts Chise to work carving her staff. That night, he shows her the elves dancing, which is said to cause flowers to blossom. Apparently influenced by the magic of Lindel's song, the lake connects Chise to Elias and they talk a bit. Before Lindel puts the finishing touches on the staff the following day, he encourages Chise to be more proactive about asking Elias for help in her study of magic. When the staff is completed, she has a vision of Nevin and she confides in him all the things she's been carrying around, her fear of abandonment, the trauma of her past, etc. Nevin speaks words of encouragement and with that push, Chise takes her leave of Lindel and puts her new staff to use in a rather impressive display to return to Elias. Of course, this ends up wiping her out and while she's sleeping, she has a dream about happier times with her family, a time she had forgotten ever happened, to the point where she doesn't entirely believe the dream was a real memory.
When she wakes up, Elias calls her down to help with the shearing of the Woollybugs, little magic critters that feed on cold air, as their wool is useful as a magic ingredient. Chise tries to find the opportunity to talk to Elias about the things she's been wanting to discuss with him, but the way she always holds back is, well, holding her back. It takes her getting attacked by the Woollybugs' counterpart the Snowbug (which feed on heat, to include the body heat of living things and is said to be one of the reasons people die from exposure in colder climes) to get the two of them settled long enough for them to actually talk. Chise tells Elias what she learned from Lindel and that she knew what happened that night. Elias is about to erase her memory, but she refuses and then proceeds to tell him about her past and what happened with her family. As they talk, Elias concludes that while he's Chise's teacher of magic, she's his teacher on humanity, and while Chise didn't really get him to open up the way she wanted, she's at least satisfied that she's making progress.
As we set up the next story, we have a bunch of little episodes: Elias dealing with a customer, Chise filling Simon's order for cold medicine and Elias looking over Chise's new staff. Then a new guest appears, Ashen Eye, who has come to test the fledgling young mage. He gives her an enchanted pelt that turns her into a fox. In a way that reminds me of how transformations work in the Earthsea series, Chise's animal nature starts to overtake her human one and it seems like she'll just run off into the woods never to return. However, Elias pursues her and convinces her to come back to him. Well, it's less that he convinces her as he reminds her of what she really wants, breaking the transformation. Things seem to settle down after that, but just as Chise is going to bed, the leannan sidhe appears, pleading with her to save Joel. And that's our cliffhanger.
Art:
We get a number of nice little scenes here, like the bit where Chise falls into the pond, the elf dance, Chise's firebird transformation, etc. We don't have any big action scenes like the previous volume, but the magic of the scenario gets delivered well on a visual level.
Other:
We get a one-page afterword comic where Yamazaki talks about attending the Japan Expo in Paris.
Conclusion:
After the dust-up with Cartaphilus, it's nice to take time to explore Elias and Chise's characters. They're both quite clumsy in how they relate to each other, but they're making progress. We learn a fair bit, which is always nice. Fans should be quite pleased with this and add this volume to their collections along with the rest.
Rating:
Own It