The Priestess lowered her arms and her gaze. Her eyes came down from the dark of the night sky and stared out towards the crowd in front of her. She paused for a moment, as if remembering where she was. Then she spoke again, this time in a familiar tongue.
"Livia and Julia, daughters of the Living Goddess, the time has come to accept your divinity. With Fire you will be reforged, with Wine you will drink of life, with Blood you will be truly born."
Cybele moved. She had been standing in the darkness behind her daughters, still as some ancient statue. Now she slowly kneeled down. Livia could feel the ancient stage shaking, as Cybele's slow movements made cracks spread like cobwebs through the stones of the stage. She was bending over, setting something down; Livia waited anxiously to see what it was. Then the object came into view; a huge goblet, made of gold and bejeweled with rubies. The spicewine, thought Livia. This was it.
As Cybele stood back up, the Priestess turned around, facing towards the sisters. She poured a pitcher of wine into the empty goblet, red wine that sparkled in the firelight. Then for the first time the Priestess looked at Livia, staring into her eyes with an odd intensity. "Drink," said the Priestess, "and become."
There was a single goblet for the two sisters, and Livia had no desire to be the first to drink. She looked back to her sister, but Julia returned her look with a glance that seemed to say, "you first." And with a defeated shrug, Livia stepped towards the goblet. The spicewine had a faint glow, thought Livia, just like in the stories. Tiny lights danced and swirled through the wine like dying embers, and a weak crimson glow bathed Livia's face as she lowered down to pick up the goblet. With unsteady hands, she lifted the cup to her lips and sipped the wine.
The taste was strong, even overwhelming at first. Livia rarely drank wine, and even when she did it was heavily diluted most of the time. Yet as she sipped a bit more, she found herself surprised by how ordinary the wine was, and more than that, how ordinary she felt. She had been expecting to feel something; a tingling, or a rush of energy, or lightheadedness. Instead, she simply felt as if she had drank some wine.
Livia hesitantly took another small sip, then another. If she drank too little, she might be accused of botching the ceremony. If she had too much... well, Livia didn't want to think what would happen if she had too much. But she drank, a little more and a little more, until something told her that she'd had enough. She carefully set down the goblet, which was still mostly full, and backed away.
Now it was her sister's turn. Julia stepped in with a confident swagger, grabbing the goblet and taking a long swill. To Livia's amazement, her sister gulped down the wine in a matter of seconds. With an exaggerated motion, Julia wiped red wine from her lips before tossing the heavy goblet off the side of the stage. The goblet tumbled down onto the crowd. Livia gasped as she heard a brief scream of terror cut short, yet no one else seemed to pay any mind. Instead, to her surprise, the crowd suddenly erupted into cheering.
***
Livia had little idea what to expect next. She had heard stories here and there, sure, but they were generally second-hand and half-remembered. It had been decades, after all, since the last Coronation, when her mother was made a Goddess. She knew people who had been there, but whenever she tried asking them, they offered few details. Cybele herself, who knew the ceremony better than anyone, would tell her nothing at all.
What she knew about the ceremony consisted mainly of vagaries and innuendo, and details that were as likely imagined as remembered. Julia had told her plenty, sure. Her big sister always had plenty of stories about the Coronation ceremony, stories with blood sacrifices and rape and murder. But Livia was uncertain how much of that was genuine, and how much was just her big sister's way of toying with her. But at least, thought Livia, 'Wine' was out of the way... All she had to worry about now were 'Fire and Blood.' Whatever that meant.
The Priestess stepped back onto her platform, and the crowd became silent once more. "Fire, light the path to ascension. Blood, give us power." For a moment, nothing happened, but Livia heard beastl-ike grunts in the distance. Was there some terrible creature waiting for her? Perhaps she had to conquer some terrible beast, to complete the ceremony?
A beast, indeed. A creature walked into the firelight. It was a full-size bull, large but not fearsome. The creature, led on a leash by two slaves, followed obediently. Livia realized the creature's purpose. Taurobolium. He's not a fighter, thought Livia. He's a sacrifice.
The Priestess spoke once more in the strange tongue. "A ugoenoto bik, podgotveni da se namali." She stepped from her platform and circled the bull, producing a knife from her side pocket as she walked behind the beast. It was a long, curved dagger, foreign, sharp and dangerous. Very much, thought Livia, like the Priestess. "Neka negovite testisi da se namali , kako sveštenicite na Boicata , koi se napraveni za da bidat evnusi."
The priestess knelt down behind the bull, reaching the knife between the creature's legs and grabbing its testicles with her other hand. With a single assured swipe, she castrated the beast. The bull let out a pained, beast-like groan, but made no attempt to struggle.
Cybele, thought Livia. Her mother had taken her God-name from an obscure goddess, worshiped in Anatolia. There had been cults worshiping Cybele in Greece, but none that had attained any kind of real prominence. Not, that is, until the Empress took her name. When she was younger, Livia had been curious about her mother's eponymous goddess. Servants had told her bits and pieces. Cows were often sacrificed to the Anatolian goddess, a practice known as Taurobolium. Her mother preferred other kinds of sacrifices, but the old tradition was still practiced here. Its testicles would be removed, then burnt in a fire, symbolizing the castration of the Eunuch slaves that served the ancient goddess. Then the animal's throat would be slit; Blood for the Blood Goddess. Livia shuddered to think about it; she hated the idea of animals being hurt.
"Sega im dade negovata maškost na Boica." The Priestess dropped the bull's testicles into a brazier. The low flame suddenly came alive, rising high before quickly subsiding. "Sega e točno rtva." The priestess circled back in front of the bull. Meanwhile, a slave hurried over with a silver goblet, which he held under the creature's neck. "Let his throat be cut, to spill blood for the goddesses." Livia looked away, but the sounds were unmistakable, and the picture in her mind was all too vivid: a knife slitting a throat, gallons of blood spilling onto the ground and dripping into a metal cup. When she looked back, the animal was lying dead on the ground, and the cup was full with something Livia knew wasn't wine.
The Priestess took the silver goblet from the slave. "Now drink, and taste life." So she would taste her first blood, and hopefully her last. Once more she glanced at her sister, but now Livia had a look of determination on her face. This time, Livia wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. She walked up to the priestess, kneeled down and took the goblet. I can do this... Just one small sip, she thought, puckering her mouth in anticipation. Let's get this over with...
Livia took her first tentative sip from the goblet. It was a familiar bitter taste, something she'd tasted a thousand times before when she bit her lip or licked a wound... And yet the thought of having some creature's foul blood in her mouth, and so much of it, was repulsive. But she wanted to complete the ceremony. At least it's just a bull being sacrificed, and not a slave... She choked the blood down as best as she could. To her surprise, it went down easier than she expected. As Livia lowered the goblet, she realized that it was mostly empty.
Suddenly, Julia grabbed the goblet from her sister. Again, Julia took a long swig, downing the rest of the cup in a single gulp. She playfully overturned the cup, showing that there was nothing left. But a moment later, Julia started violently coughing. She hacked away, coughing up phlegm and grabbing violently at her chest.
To her own surprise, Livia found herself rushing to her sister's aid. Yet by the time Livia reached her sister, Julia had recovered, at least physically. Julia forced herself to smile to the crowd, trying to make a jest of the incident. She tried to affect the same confident swagger she'd had just moments earlier, but Livia could see through the show. She didn't expect that, and neither did I. Who would have thought that out of the two of us, she'd be the one to choke on sacrificial blood. That's not a good omen, thought Livia. For her.
The priestess spoke once more. "Now, people of Rome, you have seen two Princesses become Goddesses. The ceremony has ended. Let us go in peace, and let the new Goddesses return to their home." The crowd cheered, and people started to shuffle away. They were making their way home. The ceremony seemed to be over.
"What?" Livia found herself bursting out. "That's it?" Livia couldn't believe it. All that worry, all that anxiety, had been for nothing. This was it, this was the ceremony. A little wine and a slaughtered bull. Not so bad at all. Who would have thought that Julia would be the weak-bellied one?
Against her better judgement, Livia decided to rub it in.Quieting her voice, she turned to Julia and whispered, "What's wrong, can't handle a little cow's blood? I didn't mind it all that much, personally. All in all, not a bad little ceremony. What happened to all the horror stories you used to tell me? I never took you for the imaginative type, sister."
"Fuck off. I choked. And you'll do worse, I'm sure, before the night is over. You really think the ceremony is over? Are you really that naive? This is all just a show for the common people, a little song and dance act to keep them entertained. That wasn't even real Spicewine, or can you not tell the difference? You really think they'd let the public watch the ceremony? No, the real Coronation is much more exclusive affair. And it's about to begin."