The Ancient Magus' Bride

Having given up on life, 15-year-old Hatori Chise sells herself at an underground auction. She is bought by Elias Ainsworth, a not-quite-human mage, for 5 million pounds. He intends for her to be his future bride, and her world begins to change.

Few people know the truth about the bookstore outside London that Elias frequents. He takes Chise there to meet Angelica, who teaches Chise a little bit of magic. But the power of the Sleigh Beggy materializes a fragment of Chise's memories.

Simon, who is assigned by the Church to keep an eye on Elias, visits with some business. One of his requests brings Chise and Elias to the ends of the earth, where they meet Elias' mentor, Lindel, along with an old race on the verge of extinction.

Long ago, the humans and cats of Ulthar were struck by a great tragedy. For generations, the souls of those impacted have been sealed away by the king of cats. Chise and Elias travel to Ulthar to complete Simon's second task: purify the remaining spirits.

To sorcerer Refnred's eyes, Chise is a sad girl being duped by a mage. But no matter what Elias' true motives are, Chise has no intention of leaving him. Elias was the first person to value her, after all.

More than ten days have passed since the incident at Ulthar, but Chise is still in a deep sleep. Elias and Simon stand worriedly by her side, when they are met by unexpected guests.

The Church's final request is to investigate a black dog that emerged in a cemetetry, but the black dog ends up saving Chise from danger. Meanwhile, Renfred's apprentice, Alice, is also looking for the black dog.

Alice sees Elias' changes and decides that he could never be human. Sorcerer Cartaphilius, who is trying to capture the black dog by manipulating Renfred and Alice, makes Elias show a completely different side of himself when his "work" hurts Chise.

With the church's requests fulfilled, things were supposed to go back to normal. But Elias has been acting strange since the last request: he'd vanished on the first morning after Chise had spent a night in his room.

Chise and Selkie go to meet Lindel in order to have a mage's staff made for Chise. Frustrated by Chise's acceptance of being kept as a pet by Elias, Lindel describes the time he found Elias in the darkness.

Elias is an odd failure who pretends to be human, but was it his master's words or his distrust for humans that made him stop communicating about himself?

Lindel finishes the staff that Chise was carving. As she finishes, she meets an old friend who offers her some wise advice.