The Ancient Magus' Bride: Shadow Bride, Moonlit Promise
She has no magic. No family. No place to belong. But when the "beloved child of night" arrives at Glendower College, Lucy Webster's cursed gift—her strange, unwanted perception—may be the only thing standing between Chise and the darkness closing in around her.
Lucy Webster has spent eight years surviving. Surviving the massacre that took her family. Surviving the whispers that call her cursed. Surviving as an auditor at a college of magic where she's tolerated at best—and hated at worst. With
The Ancient Magus' Bride: Shadow Bride, Moonlit Promise - The Moonlight Grass Weeps at Dawn — The Rewritten Map of Magical Power
That passage I read in the archives room—it's stuck to the back of my mind and won't come off.
"The vessel's mana will not return until it has been drained completely."
Lucy Webster sat in her dorm room with the curtains thrown open, staring out into the night. Her face, reflected in the window glass, was dreadfully pale. Her shoulder-length black hair clung to her cheeks, damp with sweat.
(Tonight, Finn will carry out the ritual.)
She spread out the scrap of paper Seth had given her on the desk. It was a rough sketch showing the route to the old ritual chamber beneath the academy. Seth had said, flatly, "I didn't look into anything. This just happened to come my way at work"—but the precision of that map proved he'd investigated in earnest.
(Big brother, thank you.)
Lucy folded the map in thirds and shoved it into her skirt pocket.
The wall clock passed eleven. No footsteps echoed through the dorm corridor anymore. The auditing students had long since retreated to their rooms.
(I have to go.)
(I have to save Chise.)
Lucy pulled on a thin cardigan. Her fingers trembled so badly she couldn't fasten the buttons. Three deep breaths. At last, her fingers obeyed.
She left the room. The old wooden corridor creaked with every step.
Outside Slate House, the night air stung her skin. It was the end of May, yet tonight felt strangely cold. The moon hung in the sky—a white moon, nearly full. Bathed in that light, moonflower blossoms glowed silver across the garden.
Lucy walked the stone path toward the academy's main building. Muffling her footsteps. Holding her breath.
(Don't let anyone see me.)
She circled behind the main building and slipped in through an old service door. Just as Seth had told her, the lock on this door was broken. The rusted hinges gave a small *creak*. Lucy felt as though her heart might leap from her throat.
The stairs to the basement were at the very back of the main building, in a spot easily mistaken for a storage closet. She pushed open the heavy iron door with both hands.
Cool, musty air came billowing up from below.
(This smell.)
Lucy's sensing ability snapped wide open. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end. From beyond the stone stairs, a thick, syrupy scent of mana came surging up in coils.
(Finn's mana.)
(And the sweet smell of moonflowers.)
(...No. It's not just sweet.)
It was raw. Mixed in with the moonflower fragrance was the smell of iron—no, of blood. Lucy covered her mouth with her hand. A sharp ache twisted deep in her stomach.
(Even so, I'm going.)
Lucy descended the stone steps one at a time. Her footsteps echoed off the walls. It felt as though even the sound of her heartbeat was being swallowed by the stone.
The corridor leading underground was longer than she'd expected. Pale blue flames flickered in the candelabras mounted at regular intervals along the walls. Mana lights. As Lucy drew near, the flames swelled all at once, softly—as if welcoming her intrusion.
(Disgusting.)
(But this is the right place.)
Her sensing ability was pointing the way. At the end of this corridor, in the chamber with the altar, something was happening. Something very, very terrible.
Lucy clutched the map in her pocket. The paper crumpled, damp with sweat.
At the end of the corridor, a large double door came into view. A thick door of old oak. Its surface was carved with countless patterns she had never seen before.
(The old ritual chamber.)
(Beyond that door.)
Lucy reached out toward it.
—And that was the moment.
With a sharp *crack*, her fingertips were flung back.
"...Ngh!"
Lucy yanked her hand away. Her fingertips burned with pain. Looking down, she saw the tips of her index and middle fingers swollen red.
(A barrier.)
(I can't touch it.)
A transparent wall of mana stretched across the entire door. To Lucy's sensing ability, it was plainly visible—a thin, membrane-like wall, silver, yet harder than steel. Finn's mana sealed the door tight.
"...Open."
Lucy forced the words out.
"Please, open...!"
No answer. Instead, from beyond the door, she heard a low voice chanting.
It was Finn's voice.
The blood drained from Lucy's face.
(It's started.)
(The ritual—already.)
Lucy threw herself against the door. Her shoulder struck the wall of mana and was repelled. Again. Again. Her shoulder screamed in protest. Still the wall did not budge.
"Chise!"
Lucy shouted at the door.
"Chise, can you hear me?! It's me—it's Lucy!"
Her voice echoed uselessly down the corridor.
Then, beyond the door, Finn's chanting stopped.
A dead silence fell.
The next moment, the door swung slowly open from the inside.
"...Welcome, young lady."
A tall man stood there, his long silver hair tied back. From the crown of his head, goat horns curved gently upward. His jade-green eyes glowed bright in the darkness. Finn Earnsworth.
He folded his white-gloved hands respectfully before his chest.
"Your sensing ability is truly magnificent. To locate this barrier so effortlessly—"
Finn's voice was as calm and smooth as ever. As though he were inviting her to afternoon tea.
"Chise... what have you done with Chise?!"
Lucy shouted, her voice shaking.
Finn smiled brightly. The smile stayed, but something deep in his eyes went cold.
"Come now, see for yourself. This way, if you please."
Finn extended one hand. A gesture of escort.
Lucy glared at him.
(This man is completely at ease.)
(Did he know I would come?)
Ignoring Finn's hand, Lucy stepped through the doorway.
—She gasped.
At the center of the chamber stood a stone altar. Around it, moonflowers had been planted in a ring, casting silver light. That glow dimly lit the high-ceilinged ritual chamber.
And there, upon the altar.
Chise lay stretched out.
The red-haired girl was covered with a thin white cloth, sleeping. No—she had been put to sleep. Her face, eyes closed, was dreadfully pale, all color gone.
"Chise!"
Lucy broke into a run.
—But before she reached the altar, she was stopped again by an invisible wall.
"Kh...!"
Lucy pressed her hands against the wall. This time, the instant her fingertips touched it, something like a fine electric current ran through her. Her palms went numb with a tingling buzz.
"Oh, do be careful. That barrier is made of my mana. Touch it carelessly, and your small hands will be scorched."
Finn spoke lazily from behind her.
"Wake Chise up! What did you do to her?!"
Lucy spun around and shouted.
Finn walked toward the altar. Standing beside Chise, he gently stroked her sleeping cheek with a gloved fingertip.
"There is nothing to worry about. She is merely sleeping. In her dreams, she is speaking with my beloved."
"...What are you talking about?"
Lucy's voice trembled.
Finn looked toward her. His jade eyes glinted in the dark like a cat's.
"Cecilia. She was my fiancée. Twelve years ago, an epidemic took her—she grew cold in my arms."
Finn's voice was gentle, as though he were singing a lullaby.
"I want to hold her in these arms once more. That is all. Surely you understand? The sorrow of losing someone you love."
"Even so—using Chise as a vessel...!"
Lucy dug her nails into the wall.
Finn tilted his head.
"A vessel. Yes, precisely. She is the vessel to call Cecilia back. With the power of a night's beloved child, a soul-resurrection spell will succeed perfectly. I have spent twelve years preparing for this."
Finn laid his hand gently on Chise's forehead.
"Now, let us begin. I shall grant you the privilege of witnessing a historic moment with that splendid sensing ability of yours."
Finn began to chant.
Low, ancient words. A magical incantation blending Latin and Old English.
The moonflowers around the altar blazed with dazzling light all at once. Silver light became threads, flowing from Chise's body into Finn's fingertips.
"Stop...!"
Lucy pounded her fist against the wall.
A dull *thud*. The wall did not move.
"Stop it! Chise—her mana is being drained!"
Lucy's sensing ability showed her all too clearly. Countless silver threads of light were being drawn out of Chise's entire body, sucked into Finn's fingertips. The color drained visibly from Chise's face. Her lips were turning purple.
"Chise! Chise, wake up! Please, open your eyes!"
Lucy kept pounding on the wall. Her fists throbbed. The skin split, blood seeping through. Still she did not stop.
Finn, still chanting, glanced at Lucy.
"It is useless. Your sensing ability is magnificent—you perceive the nature of my mana and its danger with perfect accuracy. But you have no power to fight. You cannot break my barrier."
Finn's voice was kind. The voice of a man utterly certain of victory.
"You can only watch. That is the role assigned to you."
"...You're wrong."
Lucy pressed her forehead against the wall.
Tears spilled over. From frustration. From helplessness.
(I have no power to fight.)
(My sensing ability is useless—good for nothing but watching.)
(Chise is being taken from me right before my eyes.)
(And I can do nothing.)
Lucy squeezed her eyes shut.
—And that was the moment.
The pain in her fists vanished.
In its place, something exploded outward inside her mind.
(Huh...?)
Behind her vision—no, deep in the back of her brain—countless lines of light surfaced all at once. Blue light. Silver light. Red light. Green light. The flow of mana, stretched densely across the far side of the wall, the ceiling, the floor, the air itself—she could see it.
(This is...)
Lucy's sensing ability was running wild.
The currents of mana she had only ever felt vaguely were now visible as clearly as if she could hold them—no, clearer than that. The structure of Finn's barrier. The waves of mana radiating from the moonflowers. The vast power swirling inside Chise's body. And the black, stagnant, death-reeking mana pouring from Finn's fingertips into the altar.
(I can see all of it.)
(There.)
Lucy found it.
A flaw in Finn's barrier.
At the lower right of the wall, about a foot above the floor. There alone, the flow of mana was ever so slightly warped. One of the threads of light composing the barrier floated free, not intersecting with the others.
(If I can do something about that spot.)
Lucy reached for the flaw with everything she had.
Her fingertips touched the wall.
This time, she was not repelled.
(I can touch it.)
(My fingers are going into the wall.)
Lucy moved her fingers along the flaw.
Tracing the flow of mana.
And then—astoundingly—from the places her fingertips touched, the barrier's threads of light began to come undone, one after another.
(Am I... rewriting the flow of mana...?)
Lucy's hands moved on their own. No—the map in her mind was issuing commands to her fingertips. Move this thread here. Divert this current that way.
A crack raced across the barrier.
With a sharp *crack*, like shattering glass.
"...What are you doing?"
For the first time, Finn's voice carried alarm.
Lucy did not answer. She had no time to answer.
(A little more.)
(Just a little more.)
Lucy pressed both hands against the wall. Light of mana spilled from her fingertips. Lucy's deep brown eyes flashed, shifting to a golden amber.
"Stop that!"
Finn broke off his chant and thrust his hand toward Lucy.
"—Ngh!"
Lucy dodged Finn's attack spell by a hair's breadth. Behind her, a stone wall burst apart with a *crash*. Fragments grazed her cheek. A thin line of blood trickled down.
(But now—)
(The barrier is broken.)
Before Lucy's eyes, Finn's wall of mana crumbled with a roar. Silver fragments scattered into the air and vanished.
"Chise!"
Lucy ran to the altar.
She lifted Chise into her arms. She was terribly cold. Her breathing was shallow.
"Chise, Chise, please, open your eyes...!"
Lucy slapped Chise's cheek again and again with her bloodstained hand.
Chise's eyelids twitched.
"...Lucy...?"
A hoarse voice. But it was unmistakably Chise's.
"Chise! Thank goodness, you're awake...!"
Lucy held her tight. Tears poured o
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