Behind the Door

Count Agist returned to his manor with Thomas, Nicholas, and Dion that next morning. He left most of the knights he brought to the village with Morgan just in case they had any trouble.

Morgan did inform him that he planned to change the name of the village to "Farmington" even if it was the only thing he could do as interim lord before the King decides to assign another lord. He also would make sure to keep the former lord's records intact as they exposed much of his embezzlement and misappropriation of funds and goods.

Count Agist went back to his room, placed his ax, The Last Stand, on its weapon mount, and then hung up his armor. He didn't get much sleep the night before so he considered taking a quick nap, but changed his mind as he was afraid Lillica or Lorraina would mess with him in his sleep again.

Looking at his bed, Count Agist saw that it was empty and in the same state he had left it before leaving for the village. "Hmmm, Isadora never forgets to make my bed..."

He saw a tray with a teapot and teacups next to his bed and opened the teapot. "This tea is cold, she wouldn't have brought it today anyways since I wasn't back yet."

Count Agist knew Isadora's room was only 2 doors down from his own, so he went over to her room to see if maybe she was sick. He didn't really have to do anything, but since she was Dion's sister, he still worried for her as Dion was his best friend.

Count Agist knocked twice on Isadora's door, but didn't hear a sound.

"Welcome back Agi!" came a female voice behind him suddenly.

"Lorraina... good to see you too, have you seen Isadora around?"

"Isadora? Yeah, we had a girl's night together so I may have kept her up later than intended!"

Count Agist felt anger start to rise up inside, "Did you feed on her?"

"Um, just a little Agi, nothing she should feel and not recover from after a good sleep, what's wrong?"

Count Agist reached out and grabbed her by the throat "I told you not to cause any trouble!"

Lorraina's eyes started to roll back and her tongue started to hang out slightly, her hands started to grab at Count Agist. "M-More..."

Count Agist released Lorraina, he forgot that she considered that foreplay. "Is she still in her room?"

"Yes... at least she was this morning."

Isadora's door opened and Isadora poked her head out to see what the commotion was. "What's going on out here?"

"Oh, you're alright! I was worried something had happened!" Count Agist felt his anger fade a little, but he noticed that Isadora looked extremely tired and pale. "Are you actually alright?"

"Yes, I am find my sweet King Agis– I mean, Count Agist, I had a terrible nightmare and Lorraina spent the night with me which gave me a wonderful dream." Isadora still managed to smile at Count Agist.

"Was she about to say 'sweet King Agist' to me?" Count Agist thought to himself. Her eyes did seem to look at him a little differently than usual, they looked softer and more affectionate.

"I actually just woke up, I shall get started on my tasks immediately!" Isadora tried to speak energetically, but it was obvious to both Lorraina and Count Agist that she was exhausted.

"Isadora, sweetie, let me help you! Teach me what to do and I'll be your arms and legs for today!" Lorraina said happily.

"No-no, I can't let you do that! This is my task, and you are a guest so– "

Count Agist interrupted her, "She's been freeloading long enough, if she wants to work, let her work!"

"W-Well... if it is your command milord, I can't deny it. Your dress is way to beautiful for work though Lorraina, let's get you into one of my work outfits!"

Isadora took Lorraina's hand and pulled Lorraina into her room. Lorraina mouthed "Thank You" to Count Agist, winked at him, then disappeared into Isadora's room.

Count Agist wondered what had happened while he was gone that caused those two to get so close in just one night. He reminded himself to ask Lillica or Lorraina about it later, but for now he really wanted to figure out the door to his late father's study.

Count Agist realized that Lillica and Lorraina had both walked into the study without any effort and wanted to see if he could get one of them to open it from the inside. Lorraina was busy so for the first time ever, he actually went to go find Lillica for help.

Count Agist walked up to the room he had let Lillica and Lorraina borrow and knocked on the door. "Lillica, are you in?"

The door opened up in front of Count Agist and Lillica peeked out at him, yawned and said, "Yes?"

Lillica looked sleepy as well, but since she wasn't wearing anything but black stockings and a pair of panties, he immediately turned around and yelled "Put some clothes on damn it!"

"Oh, silly me, I knew I forgot something." Lillica said teasingly.

Count Agist was fairly confident she didn't forget, but, just like Lorraina, loved to tease him. "I need your help if you are free."

"I am always free for you Agi."

"Ok, come with me to my late father's study, I need your help getting inside."

Lillica came back out, dressed this time, then twined her arm around Count Agist's. "Let's go then!"

Count Agist was used to this by now so he let it go. They walked down the hallway to his father's study and then Count Agist asked Lillica, "Can you open that door for me from the inside?"

"Why from the inside sweetie?"

"Because I tried opening it from the outside and it is locked, nor was I able to break it down, and even Last Stand... errr... Simon said that I wasn't ready to open it yet."

"Simon said you weren't ready?"

"Well, the entity behind the door said I wasn't ready, or so Simon says." Count Agist said off-handedly.

"That does sound interesting. Simon likes to act a fool, but remember it is only an act. Now let's see what's behind this door."

Lillica walked up to the door and gave the handle a pull, then frowned when it didn't open. "Don't mind this for a second sweetie..."

At first Count Agist didn't know what she meant by that, but then he felt an oppressive force come from Lillica and her arms turned muscular. She gripped the handle of the door and pulled it again, but the entire handle came off while the hand she has used to brace herself had sunk in an inch into the stone.

A female voice came into Lillica's head "Please wait! I can't let Siegfried in yet!"

"What do you mean? Who is Siegfried?" Lillica replied in her own mind. She stared at the torn off door handle in her hand then pulled her hand out of the wall and pretended to be thinking about what happened.

"Siegfried Agist, seventh generation's son from the original ruler of Agistania, the one behind you."

A smile came across Lillica's lips as her muscles shrunk back to normal and she turned to look at Count Agist. "Oh my, you didn't tell me your first name was Siegfried."

"Damn it Lillica! That's not why we're here... but how did you learn of that?"

"I'll tell you later, give me a moment with her, if she interferes with us, I'll eliminate her."

The voice rang through Lillica's head panicked slightly "Please Queen Lillith! I am no threat to you! I am merely looking out for the good of Siegfried!"

"How do you know I am... was... formerly Queen Lillith?"

"Your line has been closely watched by our kind, we are, or at least were, your mortal enemies until the realms split."

"Are you an angel then?"

"Yes, I am one of the seraphim or angels you speak of, or at least was. The original Lord Agist made a deal with one of the 72 demon generals in order to secure power to become King Agist about 300 years ago. His compromise was the souls of his firstborn son and the firstborn sons of any son from then on. King Agist thought he could fool him if he had a daughter, but the demon cursed his family line to never give birth to a daughter as one daughter would break the chain of sacrificed souls."

"Sounds like something a demon general would do, so where do you fit in all of this?" Lillica asked, noticing that Count Agist was starting to get impatient. "Actually, I'm going to come in, seeing Count Agist standing out here getting impatient is bothersome."

"Well... Ok, I couldn't stop you even if I wanted to. If you had grabbed the door directly I would've been unable to keep you from opening it."

"Good, give me a moment then..."

Lillica looked back again at Count Agist and said "Siegfried, sweetie, I'm going to go in and have a chat with her, I'll tell you about it after so behave until then!"

"I hate that name! And why are you telling me to behave in my own manor?! You are the one I worry about misbehaving!"

Lillica smiled and then took a step towards the door to the study, faded away, then materialized inside the study again. She had been in here before, but hadn't really looked around since her and Lorraina were only grabbing clothes last time.

"Do you enjoy teasing Siegfried?" the angel whispered in Lillica's mind.

"Who wouldn't, he's so naive about some things that it amuses me to no end." Lillica spoke to herself. "Now where are you?"

"There should be a locket hanging on the door, my life feather is in there."

"My, aren't we trusting telling a demon where that is."

"...you were going to look for it anyways and find it eventually. So what is your purpose then? You seem friendly with Siegfried."

"My purpose is my own, I'm here to merely see if you are going to interfere with it. Let's start with names, who are you?"

"Chloe, and my purpose is to sacrifice my own life to save the 7th generation son should no daughter be born before him in order to stop the rise of the demon's power."

"And what part of this is Agist not ready for?"

"Open this book..." Chloe sent a picture of a book to Lillica's mind.

Lillica walked over to the bookshelf and found the book that Chloe was talking about. She pulled it out and placed it on a table, carefully opening the book to a random page as it was quite old and she was worried about damaging it.

The page that flipped open had a symbol Lillica was very familiar with, she read quickly through the contents of it, then flipped to another random page and did the same thing again.

"This can't be..." Lillica started to get an inkling of what the book was about and did her best to open it to the front page without damaging it. She saw the title of the book finally and whispered to herself. "You are right... he is not ready for this... nor are you..."