<div class="floatright">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/3/36/Livia.jpg)</div><em><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;">Livia</span> - watching the games and taking the news ... on the chin<br/></em><br/>Livia watched silently as the game began, she allowed her thoughts to move back and forth between the men fighting on the sands and Manius. What would Lulia think of her actions? Had she let herself down by behaving as if she were a young woman with a free heart? He was married and there would never be any thing more between them than the mild flirtations they had shared. Her eyes widened as the gladiator disarmed the sworded opponent and laid a blow to the side of his head. As she had always done with Lulia she reached now for the nearest hand and found herself squeezing the digits of her champion. She allowed a smile to grace her features. How did he compare with Manius, with her beloved husband for that matter? Her heart felt heavy, it had all been so much easier when all she had known was her love and now with him gone she should have been content with Patrocles filling her bed but her heart ached for more. Her gaze tore from the sands and she looked at the hand she held, calloused and tough battle and work worn hands, they were in her view the hands of a man. Strong and protective, she lifted the back of his hand to her lips and kissed it softly before releasing it and standing from her chaise went to lean on the balcony to view the arena and the fight closer.<br/><br/>She was Livia Sabina Metalla, owner of Ludus Metalla and proud of it. The man behind her and her Doctore had aided her for the past year when the Ludus could easily have failed. Would she now throw it all away on a whim? Did she truly wish to belong to any man completely again? One bed partner was more than enough for now and she knew that if things went further between herself and Manius she would never be able to look Valeria in the face again. No she would behave as she had always done towards him, with propriety and nothing more. Whatever business needed sorting, then it would be concluded today.<br/><br/>The gladiator began to pummel the face of the other and she winced slightly, knowing that this performance was a waste, an absolute waste and how Manius could allow Matriana to dictate what occured on his sands was beyond her. Lulia would not have stood for it but would have put her in her place as a woman and lesser than he. Only his beloved wife would have been deferred to and only then she knew it would have been so he could hear her voice and allow it to calm him before he made up his own mind. Uncannily enough his own mind often times had mirrored his own. She watched the man stand and look up to the balcony, Livia did not condone his final action. He had crushed the man's throat and killed him without awaiting his superiors indication. It was not this gladiators decision whether a life be taken or not and Livia was aware once more what massive differences there were between this Ludus and her own. It seemed anarchy was rife here.<br/><br/>She turned her head as a slave made her presence known, she moved closer and kept her words hushed for Livia's ears only. Valeria was dead, Manius had been given an ultimatium by Matriana and he was following her to Rome. The suddenness of it all made her look incredulously at the slave.<br/><strong>"Is this a jest of some sort?" </strong>she asked as another pair of gladiators set up to fight. The slave reassured her that it was not and that Manius was at that moment preparing to leave from the courtyard. Repeating word for word what Manius had asked of her to tell Livia, the slave then bowed and left. Silence seemed to blur her hearing, as she stood there motionless. Valeria dead? How many had died at this house, this day? And now Manius was fleeing though he would have her believe that an ultimatum was given by the robust widow. This Ludus was a madhouse and nothing more. Anger gripped her and she slammed her hands down on the railing.<br/><br/>He had not been half the man she had surmised him to be, allowing a woman to dictate his actions. No wonder his ludus was the state it was in. Yes she would take it over all right. She would see it join with her own and rise in glory as it should have been and one day she would see Manius again, at the arena in Rome when her champion was decimating his own. Hell would freeze over before she would run like a young pup to chase at his heels and beg him to stay or cry for his departure. The entire events of this day were like a bad play rehearsed horribly, awaiting the proper actors to take the place of their under-studies. She glanced to Patrocles and felt pride surge through her before she turned to look at Caris with the same feeling. Let the understudies leave then, the true play would begin and what was on the sands she would let play out, let the rotten apples get tossed out she had no need of them. Food and wine cost coin and as this place and all in it would be hers now, she had no intention of wasting any. Contracts would need to be signed of course but she had the funds to buy him out. Taking an apple from a tray she bit into it before settling back on the chaise to watch the rest of the games, taking Patrocles hand once again and placing it upon her shoulder as she let her fingers caress it lightly.<br/><br/>