To the Sun, to the Stars, to the Sky (A Soldier/Rebellion AU)

Chapter 5: Nico Thinks Everyone Here is a Little Bit Dumb

Nico POV

Whatever the hell these guys were trying to trick me into doing, I was not about to fall for it. Reyna introduced herself to me, which I appreciated, but it was useless since no one else did. How am I supposed to figure out their ranks if none of them are in uniform, they're all missing rank tags, and the only identifiable one among them is the prince? Luckily for me, royalty was one of the highest ranks anyway, and the prince would only be topped by a king, who I didn't see. God, I hope the king wasn't here. He'd see right through my good form, to see that I am a very horrid soldier. Breaking form without permission. God, I was an idiot. I should never have gotten attached to my sister like that. I scolded myself again, making it about the thousandth time since it happened.

I held my arm to my chest, fist closed, stiff. The position used to show respect to princes, princesses, and princexes (A/N: I believe that's how to spell the gender-neutral form but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). I wouldn't get to move from this until he left or the king, the only person ranked higher than him, arrived, and honestly I was both longing for it and dreading it. I'd have to figure out who was the next highest command in the room after him. Hopefully it's something I'm supposed to stand up to show my respect for. Or, even better—if the rest of them are just higher-up soldiers and they told me to break form.

And I needed to break form. My muscles ached, especially my legs and around my knee, and speaking of, my knee was slowly being consumed by the mud. I was exhausted and starving and the wound on my side was giving me no breaks. God. I prayed the prince would leave soon so I could just break form or at least move into a position that requires me to stand, just for five minutes at least.

Of course, another solution would be that the prince himself told me I could move, but Reyna seemed irritated that I wasn't listening to her, and she wasn't letting anyone else try. Not to mention, the chances of the prince not being some sort of evil punishment-loving madman were pretty low, considering all the other people in power I'd met. So my only hope was that he'd leave to use the restroom, to hunt, to do something, and that Reyna, who I think maybe was the next highest ranking soldier due to everyone else's apparent dependence on her, and her friend would tell me to break form once he was gone.

But the group seemed to be intent on keeping him close by. I felt my skin crawl as he looked back at me again from eating around the fire. I checked my posture again. It was fine; he wasn't judging me for that. My hair was falling into my face, but I couldn't fix that either until he left. I kept my eyes steadily on the ground as I tried to figure out what I must be doing wrong that would lead to his interest in me.

I couldn't think of anything, which led my stomach to roil with anxiety. If I couldn't figure it out, I couldn't fix it. I didn't see a whip on any of them, but I knew most of them seemed to have knives at least. Those would work perfectly well for punishing me, and it was going to happen unless I figured out whatever the hell it was that I was messing up.

It didn't help that I could smell their food. I hadn't eaten since yesterday, and since I was going to be executed, they only fed me an egg at lunch and that was it. It was delicious, but it wasn't enough to calm down my stomach, which seemed to be rioting about the lack of sustenance all the time now.

I thought back to the night Bianca died. 

If- No, don't think of that. It'll only distract you. Find something else. Think of other things.

The group finished eating. A few of them began clean-up. The few that had talked to me earlier came back, including the prince.

He really never does leave, does he?