Interim Lord

Count Agist returned to his bedroom for the night, alone, he was grateful for a peaceful night as it has been nothing but chaos in the past few weeks. He knew he would have to account for the feast they had that night as his stockpiles of food were only enough to feed his knights for 3 more days.

"I'll worry about it in the morning..." Count Agist undressed and then laid down in his bed alone, pulled up the sheets and went to sleep peacefully.

Lillica slowly materialized in Count Agist's room, she didn't stay with Morgan as she felt Morgan was going to develop feelings for her and nothing good ever came of that. She saw Count Agist sound asleep on the bed and started to slowly walk towards him, her hips swaying seductively while her tail was flicking back and forth playfully.

She had found some makeup with Lorraina earlier, but they didn't actually have a use for it as she could make her illusion appear with makeup. Still, she found some bright red lipstick and applied it liberally to her lips, then crept over to Count Agist and kissed him on the forehead, leaving a set of bright red lips on his forehead.

Peering down at his sleeping form, she had a more wicked idea of leaving kiss marks on other parts of his body, but figured it would be best not to wake him.

"What are you doing?" Lorraina whispered from behind Lillica causing Lillica to jump slightly.

"Just playing a trick on our good friend here."

Lorraina saw the lipstick mark on Count Agist's forehead and giggled then said, "Want to see how many places we can leave marks on him before he wakes up?"

"Lorraina, love, let's let him sleep for now..." Lillica said as she looked down at Count Agist fondly.

"Hey sis, what's wrong? I've never been able to sneak up on you before." Lorraina said worriedly.

"Nothing at all! I was just distracted is all, it happens." Lillica said then she put her hand on Lorraina's cheek "You have nothing to worry about..."

Lorraina nuzzled Lillica's hand and then Lillica said "Come on, let's use one of the empty rooms and sleep together like we did when we were younger."

Lorraina smiled and then went with Lillica to a guest room for the night.

__________

Count Agist woke up early the next morning feeling completely refreshed, he didn't feel Lorraina or Lillica in his bed and was glad they left him alone.

Feeling relaxed, Count Agist stood up and stretched, then casually walked to his window to see the morning light wash across the fields and thatched houses that could be seen from his window.

Sadly, his peaceful morning came to a quick end when he heard someone banging on his door.

"What is it?!?" Count Agist yelled.

"A thousand apologies milord, but we have received a report that Lord Hawthorne is dead! Murdered by one of his own maids!"

Count Agist immediately thought of Lillica and Lorraina when they had left 2 days ago to take care of something, or so they said.

"Round up half of the knights, we shall head to Lord Hawthorne's estate at once to restore order. Send a messenger to the King that Lord Hawthorne has passed."

"Shall I mention the murder, milord?"

Count Agist thought about it for a second and said, "No, tell them his cause of death is under investigation. In the mean time, I will appoint my most trusted adviser as an interim lord to keep watch over the village."

Count Agist fetched a quill and parchment on his desk and wrote the message out, rolled it up, then heated up his Count's seal to melt the wax in the shape of his personal seal over the scroll as proof it came from him and handed the sealed letter to the messenger.

"Understood milord!" The messenger stood and stared at Count Agist's face.

"Something else?"

"Um... no milord." The messenger left, he wasn't sure if he should tell the Count about the lipstick mark as it could have been intentional and thus an insult for him to question it.

As soon as the messenger left, Nicholas and Thomas came through his door without knocking and started to both speak at the same time. Count Agist was expecting them to fight over who got to speak first, but instead they became cordial and Nicholas was decided upon to speak first.

"My lord, Count Agist, we heard the news of Lord Hawthorne's passing. I would like to nominate my dear brother Thomas as interim lord."

Before Count Agist could respond, Timothy interjected "Nay, I would like to nominate Nicholas!"

"Ok, what's going on you two, you've never been this friendly with each other."

Both Thomas and Nicholas looked at each other and Thomas said "We've wasted so much of our lives bickering that we realized that working together, we can accomplish so much more!"

Nicholas continued "Yes, we have Lady Lorraina to thank for showing us this flaw!"

"What did she do?" Count Agist saw Thomas's and Nicholas's eyes glaze over and perverted smile cross their faces. "On second thought, I don't want to know, either way, I'm glad you've worked out your differences. I was planning on asking Morgan since he is well-versed in such things... and what are you two looking at?"

Nicholas and Thomas both contained their laughter and at the same time said "Nothing milord!"

Nicholas spoke up after clearing his throat, "I agree Morgan is the most well-educated, but normally isn't he bed ridden every few days?"

"That isn't a problem anymore." a loud voice came from down the corridor, Count Agist, Thomas and Nicholas saw Morgan striding confidently towards them.

"You look... taller" Nicholas said surprised.

"Yeah... and happy... stop it..." Thomas said surprised as well.

"Sod off, I haven't felt this great... ever!" Thomas said energetically. "Milord, from what I hear you would like to make me interim lord. May I have a word with you in private?"

"Of course Morgan. You two go get half the knights ready!" Count Agist gestured that Morgan could enter and then Thomas and Nicholas left.

"They seem... oddly close for once..." Morgan said quietly.

"I agree, they say Miss Lorraina had something to do with it, I suppose she had something to do with your change as well?"

"Nay, but Miss Lillica did, she said the burning I was feeling was due to magic burning away my body."

"Yes, she informed me of that, I assume she was able to relieve you of that pain?"

"Yes, she said she extracted all of the excess magic and that I can prevent future pain by finding an outlet to release it."

"Great! How did she extract it? She never said how she could do it." Count Agist asked Morgan.

Morgan blushed and was having a hard time forming a complete thought. "Well... she... ummm... I feel amazing, that's all that matters right?"

Count Agist once again decided it might be better off not knowing.

"So what kind of outlet do you need to release the excess magic?"

"I am too old to go to the Wizard school in the capitol, but I am sure we could hire a tutor, or maybe even Miss Lillica knows something as she seems to be well-versed in magic."

"I'll... think about it then. Gather with the knights, I want you to take your position as interim lord before the King sends a royal inquisitor to investigate Lord Hawthorne's death."

"Understood milord!" Morgan replied, turned to leave and said "Milord, you should look in the mirror." and then left towards the knight's barracks.

Count Agist then walked over to his wardrobe and looked in the mirror, on his forehead was a bright red lipstick kiss imprint.

"LILLICA!!"