Livia's Arc

Chapter 3 of 9

Two days before the trial, Livia left the shrine to find quiet. She followed a worn path and came upon a temple she had never entered. Serpent carvings coiled up its gold walls. Inside, the air smelled of smoke and old stone. She needed one thing from this place: a way to say her secret out loud before the fangs tore it from her. She had named it to a cold statue. She had not yet named it to a living thing that could judge her. A woman sat on the temple steps, still as the carvings. Snakes moved in her hair, slow and green. Livia's own snake went flat against her skin, afraid, and did not lift its head. The woman did not turn. "Do not look at my eyes," she said. "I am Medusa. Men have become stone for less." Livia stopped and fixed her gaze on the woman's hands. "I came to pray, not to fight." "You came to practice," Medusa said. "You carry a confession you cannot hold any longer. I can hear it in your breathing." Livia's throat tightened. She had told no one. But the woman's calm pulled the words loose. "I left my people unguarded," Livia said. "The night of my ceremony. I chose my honors. Someone I trusted stood watch, and the gate opened, and my tribe scattered. I let it happen." The snakes in Medusa's hair stilled. "You think naming it will shame you before them." "It will." "I once begged to be believed," Medusa said. "A man came to my temple with no prayer. I warned the others. No one came. Then a goddess cursed me without one question." She turned her head a fraction, eyes still shut. "Shame is what they put on you. Guilt is what you did. Do not trade one for the other." Livia looked up before she could stop herself. She met the shut lids, then the lashes lifting. For one breath she saw green eyes. Her feet did not harden. Her blood did not slow. She stood whole, holding the gaze she had feared. "You did not look away," Medusa said. "Most do." "I'm done looking away." Livia's voice came steady now. "At the trial I will say it plain. I left them. I will not dress it as grief." "Then you have already passed the second fang," Medusa said. She closed her eyes and faced the wall. "The subject is finished. Go." Livia walked out into the light. Her snake lifted from her shoulders at last and tasted the air. The secret was no longer buried. She had spoken it and remained standing. But speaking the truth had sharpened a new fear. Her rival would stand in that pit too, and whatever that woman hid was still unknown. Livia knew her own secret now. She did not know the one that would be used against her.