Dance between Mortals and Immortals

Chapter 3.4

Rize followed Tomo as he led her up to the second floor of the academy.

"Listen Rize you are not supposed to be up here. The selection of the gods is supposed to be up to fate; you are not supposed to know which gods you are asking their blessing from!"

Rize looked up to him as they climbed the stairway "EHH who cares Tomo I have had bad luck my whole life so what is the harm in making my own for once? I'm just going to make a list of the coolest gods major and minor. No big deal! Besides most of the larger families all have their own libraries that have the same information and their children already know the deities they will request a blessing from." Rize said as she rolled her eyes at Tomo's lecture.

"Aww you may come to regret this Rize" he sighed admitting defeat to her sheer determination, besides it was better for him to do it then have her trying to sneak up here and doing it herself.

They approached the door at the top of the stairs "okay now Rize wait here and I will go fetch the tome."

Rize nerves began to wind up as she waited anxiously for the key to her success. Deep down she wondered what god would answer her prayers in one weeks' time during the annual ceremony. This was her chance to become an inner disciple. That would finally make others look at her ability and not her cursed eyes.

Several minutes passed and Tomo came through the door looking around nervously. "Rize here is the tome" he handed a large book to her that had all the gods that the empire knew of and gave brief summaries of them "hurry and choose no more than ten you don't want to make anyone suspicious okay."

"Yeah, yeah Tomo I got it, just let me take a look" Rize's hand darted out, snatching the tome out of Tomo's hands.

As her fingers gently glided over the old leather binding to open it up right in the middle she look at the first name and description. "Bishamonten goddess of war, Philalar god of light, Yiseri forest goddess of the Northern Forest" she spoke each name quietly to herself until her name stopped at the one name she had been familiar with. The name sprung out at her as it was a different color ink. "Femir." She whispered her voice dripping with hatefulness. Shaking her head she moved past the name flipping the page not bothering to finish it, why choose a god that doesn't even protect those who honored him the most.

The name Femir lingered in the back of her head for several minutes as she looked at more pages.

Tomo stood over her leaning up against the wall waiting for her to be finished. So far she had only found six that sounded decent to her; they all had numerous disciples based on the tome and were extremely popular. Finally she got to her last pick, but who should she choose? Rize's eyes darted left to right, up and down the pages trying to find any popular deity that sounded up her alley, after several minutes she couldn't decide.

"Aww, Tomo I can't choose my last one" Rize said looking up at him hoping he would give her a bit more time.

"Rize..." Tomo had a vein ready to pop out of her forehead "Just pick one you have three seconds" Tomo growled at her.

"Fine" quickly looking down she decided that the other nine were good enough and to just pick one that caught her eye. The page she flipped too had a small amount of water damage so she couldn't read the description, but chose Naga-Jin god of--- just as she was about to make out the last word Tomo snatched the tome back and fled back into the second floor.

"Tomo! Wait, I almost could read it!" It was too late Tomo was already behind the door and walking away at a rapid pace.

Rize stood slightly disappointed that she couldn't make out if the last name was any good to her, but she understood that Tomo had just broken several rules for her and couldn't risk any other walking on him doing something like this.

"Oh well, I found some decent picks for myself if I do say so!" she said proudly as she was going to pray directly to the other nine and get a major god to back her.

After several minutes Tomo came back and escorted Rize back out who proceeded to give him a hug and pecked him on the cheek "thank you Tomo! You are the best" she whispered to him before turning away and running down the stairs.

Tomo smiled as she ran off to get to do her daily chores. That girl is sure a funny little thing he thought laughing to himself.

...

"Are you ready?" A figure stood near a window looking out over the imperial capital; he stood tall watching the busy bodies of the average civilian run around doing mindlessly pointless things. The civilians were so simple they lived their lives without a care in the world he mused to himself.

Behind the man was a young man who was 14 years old "father I won't let you down you have nothing to fear. I will get the favor of a major god."

The man smiled "Good. Do not disappoint me."

"I won't father." the youthful voice said with confidence this was an important day of the year for Xi'an and he had no intentions of allowing himself to fail or embarrass his father.

Turning around he left the room leaving behind a middle age looking man whose arms were comfortably behind his back.

The young boy clenched his fist in determination; he knew that the honor of his family line rested on him. His other siblings all had gotten the blessing of powerful gods, now if he also succeeded in doing so, he would secure his father's place as crown prince to the Sato Empire for another hundred years.