You’re Livia’s perfect child. Her truest servant. You’re the one who was most loyal. Who most believes. It’s sweet, in a way. Dutifully chugging your wine. Pretending to savour it. A connoisseur of disgust. Livia would approve.
You have an instinct for servitude, Shiva. It suits you in some way. Putting the M in S&M. You’re persistent. You have discipline. The way you’re forcing down her wine. Stubbornly determined that it’ll give you some … enlightenment. That you’re going to learn something.
You’re nothing if not dogged, Shiva. Seeing things through the end, endlessly. The most faithful Gnostic.
You haven’t learnt the vital lesson. That there’s nothing to learn. That Livia was a liar, just like everyone else. That she was a poisoner. And this wine is just poison. The truth is that this wine went off, long ago. Just like Livia went off, long ago. All Livia was a going off.
Work in Progress 