Chapter 22: Farmington
Lorraina crept back in to her room with Lillica and climbed into bed with her. Lorraina felt anxious after seeing Lillica look pale.
"Sis, here, I was able to feed a lot off of her after you gave me the strength to continue."
Lillica looked at Lorraina then kissed her deeply, sucking some of Lorraina's regained magic out. Almost immediately Lillica's eyes brighten back up and her skin return to its normal color.
"Thank you, but you're getting too close to her, we can't afford to get close to any of them."
"Aw, but sis, Isadora is my friend!"
"That may be, but how would she feel if she knew you were a demon that fed on her and gave her a terrible nightmare?"
"She would... ummm..." Lorraina didn't really know how she would react. She had to admit that she did not enjoy hiding who she really was, but she also knew humans irrationally feared them even if they meant no harm. "I just wish we could be ourselves."
"I know, but at least you can be yourself around Agist, although he might not fully trust us yet, but I think he trusts us enough since we're here all alone after all." Lillica said with a smile.
"I think Isadora would accept me..." Lorraina said thinking wishfully.
"Maybe... but if she were to run and tell the knights or the church, would you be able to kill her to stop her?"
"She wouldn't... I mean... I wouldn't want to..."
"I'm not asking if you wanted to, I'm asking if you could kill her." Lillica said sternly.
"If it's for us sister, yes, I could kill her." Lorraina said solemnly.
"Then I'll leave it up to you if you want to expose yourself to her, but if I even think she'll betray us I will kill her and anyone else that threatens us if you don't."
Lorraina nodded and then took a pillow and held it close to her chest while laying in bed. She wanted to be close friends with Isadora but she didn't want to get her killed either. "I don't know what to do." Lorraina thought to herself as she buried her face in the pillow.
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Feldland was a large kingdom with 4 major territories and the capitol in the center. Each territory was ruled by a Duke, and each territory was further divided into counties and ruled by a Count. Within each county, the cities were ruled by a Marquis with lower Barons and Lords in it, towns were ruled by a Baron and sometimes had lower Lords, and villages were ruled by a Lord, usually alone, but they were often given a small retinue of knights to maintain the peace.
Agistania is the eastern territory and formerly ruled by Duke Agist, but after his father's demise, the other nobles had conspired against Duke Agist's son and had him demoted to a Count, and one that barely controlled any territory. Agistania was being ruled by the Duke from the north, Duke Stavros, until a new Duke rises to take over Agistania.
Of course the 2 of the 3 remaining dukes instead want to consolidate Agistania between themselves, the only one that is against it is Duchess Minerva since she wouldn't gain any territory from the deal since her western territory didn't directly border Agistania.
Agistania originally only had 3 Counts, but after his demotion, Count Agist became the 4th Count. He was able to keep his family's estate and manor from when his father was Duke, but none of the villages and towns nearby pledged fealty to him. Instead, the other counts in the area said they would allow him to manage some of their towns and villages, most of which were small and under-developed.
Count Agist was glad that this village was now under his control. While it didn't have any notable industry, it was a farming village and would help feed the knights that had joined him under order of the former Lord Hawthorne.
Count Agist left Morgan as the new Lord of the village and left him a few knights to help maintain order and security. He knew Morgan would be able to run a small village easily so he didn't regret his decision and instead would answer any questions Morgan had as best he could.
Morgan had spent most of the night going over the various documents that Lord Hawthorne kept on the village and eventually just put his face in his own palms and shook his head.
"I give up, how did that twit even run this village? He didn't catalog anything, didn't make any inspections, kept most tax income for himself, overtaxed some, under-taxed others, and I don't even want to know what this massive monthly expense of 'Nighttime Entertainment' was."
"Morgan, just take it slow at first. Try and keep his records though so we can use them as proof that we need time to fix Lord Hawthorne's fraud and poor management before we can pay taxes again."
"And what if the King sends a replacement lord? A knight and a lord may be considered the same rank in the nobility, but a noble born lord could replace me."
"He should have no reason too, this village is supposed to be under my governance anyways as well as the town north of us and the small villages around it."
"From a duke in charge of all of Agistania down to a count with barely enough territory to be considered a count... 'tis a shame what they did, but I suppose that is still better than a civil war."
"King Octavian is not a fool, nor are the dukes, they know a civil war would only weaken Feldland. Still, I hope the King will restore my family's title if he sees we are capable of turning around this tiny territory."
"And then what?"
"What do you mean?" Count Agist looked at Morgan curiously.
"Certainly you're not going to stop there! What happened to Agist the Conqueror?" Morgan said with a grin.
"Are you mad?!? We were just kids then playing games!"
"Yes, we were just kids, but Nicholas, Thomas, Dion, and myself never felt like you were playing a game."
"So what would you have me do?"
"Bring back that indomitable spirit, the same one that you used to have before..." Morgan let his voice trailed off.
"Before what... my father died?"
"Well yes! Where is the old Siegfried Agist?"
"Ugh, please don't use me surname, I hate it with a passion."
"See? The only times I see you get angry and emotional anymore are around Lady Lillica."
"So? That woman infuriates me to no end!"
Morgan couldn't help but notice the subtle smile Count Agist had when he mentioned her.
"So... you don't mind if I court her then?"
"N-not at all... she is beautiful and I can understand why you would be interested in her, but I don't think she wants to be here forever so don't expect anything of it."
Morgan laughed slightly "Yeah, she already rejected me once, but I'm not going to give up."
"As you wish Morgan, just don't ignore your duties here."
"Of course milord, and might I add you are still a master of changing the subject even when you don't mean to."
"I don't know what you are talking about, I shall head back to the estate though once the messenger returns if everything goes smoothly. If anything, good luck on your new appointment Morgan, or should I now call you Lord Frederick?"
"Yes, do that, it sounds more domineering."
Count Agist rolled his eyes and left the study where Morgan was going over the stacks of papers. A fresh paper that Count Agist brought in had caught his eye, it was Count Agist's approval for him to be the Lord of the village. Looking at it, he noticed the village's name was "Farmville" and now understood why other nobility didn't take Lord Hawthorne seriously.
"My first act will be to rename this village... 'Farmington' should do for now, kind of boring but it is also kind of boring here, I wish Lady Lillica was here then it might not be so bad."
Morgan looked up at the door and was expecting to see Lady Lillica standing there with her sultry smile saying something like 'You called for me, Lord Frederick?'. His mind started wandering towards the possibilities of this and he might have even drooled a little bit.
Count Agist walked back in to the study as he did forget to mention that he also would like the name changed, but then Count Agist saw the goofy expression on Morgan's face and walked back out without saying a word.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
LordSputnik
LordSputnik Would also love any feedback about the new cover. In case you haven't figured it out, it's supposed to be Lillica and The Last Stand (Simon).
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