Becoming Pluto's Ambassador: Nico Di Angelo

7

After hearing that the Roman praetor, son of Jupiter, was called Jason Grace, I decided I should probably find out if he knows about his 'almost definitely' sister. I got so wrapped up in thinking of ways to sneakily investigate, that I didn't realise the other praetor Reyna had spoken directly to me.

She stared at me expectantly.

"I'm sorry, but could you repeat that?" I asked.

"I said, 'Pick up your sword and come with us. We are moving to somewhere else, the feeling in here is too formal.'" she huffed.

Clearly Reyna didn't like to repeat herself. I quickly went over, picked up my sword and shoved it roughly back into its sheath, not wanting to make her any more annoyed. In my experience with the children of war gods, they could snap at any moment and had the shortest tempers known to man.

They quickly started to walk off towards the area that looked like barracks. Instead of taking me into one of the 5 equally size buildings, they instead took me into a much smaller building that seemed fancier from the outside.

"This is where the praetors sleep," Reyna explained to me, while Jason tagged along just behind. "We get are own quarters as we are supposed to be unbiased towards the five cohorts."

"Yeah, although, fifth is my favourite." Jason added.

"Not helping Jason" Reyna almost growled.

We walked into their home.

"But any way, each cohort sleep in their own building," she continued, "but we thought it best that you don't sleep with a cohort, one because you're not joining one at the request of your father, and two.." she hesitated.

"Just say it," I said, "It is incredibly hard to offend me, and I'm not going to get mad and hold a vendetta over sleeping arrangements."

".....Well the others may be rather unpleasant towards you as they don't particularly like children of Pluto." She finished.

"To be honest, it's like that everywhere I go so I don't really care too much." I said. But then I became curious. "And you? What do you think of me?" I asked, looking at Jason as well as Reyna.

"I don't have a problem with you. As praetor, it is my job to be inclusive." Reyna replied diplomatically.

By now, we had arrived at two doors, side by side.

"And I love everyone until they annoy me." Jason announced.

"Great!" Reyna exclaimed, "Because Nico here is sleeping in your room." She saw Jason's slightly shocked expression. "Sorry I didn't ask," she softened, "but he can hardly sleep in my room. You know, he's a boy.... and I'm a girl."

"Humph, it's ok, I just wished you asked me first." Jason grumbled.

I personally thought this was excellent. We could have some bro time later, and I could find a way to find out if he knew Thalia.

"Now," Reyna ordered, "I suggest you get out of that toga, cos they can be rather uncomfortable, and then Jason and I will give you a tour of Camp Jupiter".

She glared at Jason making it clear he would be helping with this tour.

"Ok." I said, quickly walking into Jason's room.

I looked around. There was a permeant bed over by one wall, that had a purple duvet and a pillow the same colour with SPQR embroidered on. On the wall next to that there was a wardrobe and a desk with a reading lamp and some papers. I wondered what they were and made a mental note to look later. And finally on the wall opposite the permeant bed, was a little camping bed about a foot off the floor with a sleeping bag on top. I guessed that that would be my bed, so I went over to it, took of my toga, folded it neatly and put it on the sleeping bag.

It felt much better to be dressed in my usual black clothes again. With my naturally black hair, I really suited the aesthetic. Many mortals in the streets of cities would assume I was goth or emo, and would never guess that I was totally different to them.

Jason burst in interrupting my thoughts. "Dude, are you done yet? I want to get outta here before there's a crush in this area as everyone rushes back to their barracks after lunch."

"Ok," I replied, "We can leave and get started with this tour if you want."

"Great!" Jason said. Then he shouted, "Reyna, he's ready, let's go!"

"Ok, gods Jason, I'm right here. No need to shout so loud." She complained.

"Can we start with Temple Hill?" Jason practically whined.

Reyna definitely had more authority in this relationship. I wondered if she had been a praetor for longer.

"Sure, and on the way there we can find out how much you know about the gods Nico." Reyna replied.

This was going to be hard to play. I knew loads about the gods..... if you were refering to their Greek side, but I only today found out about Roman ones, and I barely had enough time to look up who Pluto was, let alone the counterparts for Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, Demeter and all the other gods were.

This was going to be one hell of a ride.

"Ok, Temple Hill is the little hill with the shrines right?" I asked. "I glanced at it only my way in, it looks like there are some pretty huge shrines there."

"Yeah," Jason replied, "Generally, the bigger they are, the further up the hill they are, and the further up the hill they are, the more importance they hold to us." He explained.

Reyna quickly cut in before I could reply. "We really need to start the walk now, it's further than it looks."

"Let's go." Jason said, and we made our way out of the Praetors' home.

We were walking past the 5 other barracks that belonged to the cohorts, I noticed that one was in great condition, with three others in fairly good condition, and the final one practically crumbling.

"Why is the last building not maintained as well as the others?" I asked. I couldn't understand why one would be left to fall into disrepair.

"Oh," Jason said, suddenly much more subdued, "each building is maintained by the cohort, so those who have great sponsors can pay for better maintenance. The best one belongs to the first cohort, because all the rich enrollees get taken in by the other rich ones, and so the first cohort is basically for the rich." He said with distaste. "And the run down one belongs to fifth. Anyone who's a nobody or looked down upon goes there."

This got me so confused, why was the son of Jupiter's favourite cohort the worst one. He talked about it as if he was a part of it before he became praetor. But he wasn't a nobody. Even if he had no money, people would still want him in their cohort, so why did he join fifth?

There was something he wasn't telling me.

×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+×+

A/N
Sorry, I was trying to be dramatic, but I'm not very good at writing books. Also sorry it is longer than other chapter, I'm trying to keep them all the same length.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter.

~Sheeps

P.S. I have end of year exams for the next three weeks, and it kicks of with a 90 minute maths exam first thing on a Monday morning 😭, so I really need to revise. Hence, I might be very irregular with my updates, but I will try and get back to being more consistent after the exams are over.

Thanks for reading.   :)