The River Kami Asked Before Taking My Hand novel · Chapter 4 of 24
Chapter 4: The Priest's Rite
"There will be no rite," Akari said.
The priest's broom stopped in the middle of a stroke.
"No rite?"
"I'm not marrying anyone. I came here to study, and I'll keep teaching on Saturdays, and I'll live in my aunt's house. That's all."
"But the river."
"The river asked if I would sit with her," Akari said. "She didn't ask for anything else."
The old man put down his broom very slowly.
He looked at her for a long moment, and his round face changed.
It went from a happy lantern to something older and more careful.
"You can see her," he said.
"Can't you?"
"Yes," the priest said. "Since I was a boy. Tomoe could, and my father, and his mother. Nobody else in the village ever has." He rubbed his hands together. "Did she say that she wanted a rite?"
"She said she didn't get asked."
"Asked."
"By the village. About the marriage." Akari's voice had begun to shake and she hated it. "She said it was your custom, and she said she'd never take what wasn't given."
"That sounds like her," the priest said quietly.
He picked up his broom again.
"The rite is old," he said. "My father ran the last one. The river keeps this valley dry and the village keeps the river company. It is a bargain. If the keeper dies and no one takes the place, the bargain ends."
"Does it end badly?"
"I do not know," he said honestly. "No one has ever tried."
Akari took a breath.
"Then ask her," she said. "Ask Nagi if she wants a rite. Ask her before you plan a party."
The priest's mouth opened.
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