Livia's Arc

Chapter 1 of 9

Livia danced before the shrine while her tribe sang around her. In three days she would face the trial of fangs. Win it, and she would become high priestess of her scattered people. The snake coiled on her shoulders tightened once, a warning she had learned to trust. Then a scream tore through the music. She ran from the temple into the night. A woman lay crumpled on the stone steps, her leg swollen black. An elder knelt beside her. "The venom sickness," he said. "Three in the camp already. No bite marks. No snakes." The crowd behind Livia went silent. Everyone looked at her. If she could not stop this, they would never trust her at the trial. Livia pressed two fingers to the woman's throat. The pulse raced. The black crept toward her knee. The snake on Livia's shoulders hissed low, and the meaning came to her clear as speech. This was no ordinary poison. It carried malice. Someone had made it. She had seen the healers try herbs and fail. Her tribe owned older remedies than herbs. Livia lifted the sick woman in her arms and carried her inside, to the sacred shrine where the goddess figure sat wreathed in living serpents. She laid the woman at its base and knelt. "Seraphina Coilheart," she prayed. "Goddess of healing. I offer myself if you will spare her." The air grew warm. The painted serpents stirred. From behind the stone goddess slid a being half woman and half snake, her scales rose gold, her hair the pink of dawn. She was the goddess herself, come in answer. Livia had prayed to her all her life and never once seen her move. "You ask for another before yourself," Seraphina said. Her voice was soft and amused. "Few do. I will teach you the cure. But know the sickness is no accident. A jealous woman brews it in the dark." She bent and touched the swollen leg. "My healing lives in the venom of my own serpents. Draw it. Press it to the wound. Poison undoes poison." Livia's hands shook, but she obeyed. She coaxed a green serpent from the shrine, pressed its fangs to the woman's leg, and let it strike. For a breath nothing changed. Then the black began to fade. The swelling sank. The woman gasped and opened her eyes. The tribe surged forward, cheering. Livia filled a clay vessel with the serpents' venom to carry to the camp. She had saved one life and held the cure for the rest. Her standing was secure. Seraphina caught her wrist before she left. "The one who made this will not stop. She wants your place, Livia. Guard your trial." The goddess sank back into stone. Livia stared at the vessel in her hands. She had won the people. Now she had a hidden enemy, and only three days until the fangs.