The fifteen minute novel writing experiment is a attempt to write a complete (and very rough) draft of a novel by writing for fifteen minutes each day. I have taken a timed writing from one of the daily prompts done in 2021, cleaned it up a little and used it as my jumping off point into a story. Each day I will take the last line of the story written the day before and use it as my sentence starter and write for fifteen minutes, growing the story as the year progresses.
Day 45: She walked over to the bed.
She walked over to the bed. The book was smaller than the one she took from the library. It was about the size of her hand and only one finger’s width wide. From the top Anya could see a small slip of paper sticking out as though it had been torn off of a corner of something much larger. Anya slid out the slip of paper and read the words written on it.
“The Star wished you to have this. It is a gift for you and does not need to be returned to the library although she does not wish you to advertise its presence here.”
The note was signed by the Matron. Anya sat down on the bed, the book and note in her lap.
‘I suppose it could have been dropped off while I was getting water,’ Anya thought. She guessed that even if the Star asked the matron to deliver the volume she wouldn’t want to hang around waiting for Anya to return. Anya set the note to the side and studied the book. The leather cover was brown, worn dark with age in the places where hands would have continued touching it. The binding was well oiled but there was a feeling of age to it.
There was no mark on the cover or on the spine of the book to mark its contents. Anya opened the cover. On the cover page of the book was a crescent moon. It was outlined in brown as was the birthmark on her arm. Inside the brown outline, it had been gilded with gold leaf and polished to a high gloss. The crescent moon shone like metal.
‘Or like my birthmark last night,’ she thought. ‘This morning.’ She corrected. Anya shook the timing away. She flipped the page to the title page her heart beginning to thump loudly. She read the books title.
‘Rituals of the Festian Empire.’
Anya frowned. Had someone seen her take a volume of ancient history from the shelf? Had they seen her mark? Were they working with Lord Mathis? Anya took a deep breath. Half of her wanted to run, the other half wanted to stay.
‘There is no place to run,’ Anya reminded herself. She swallowed back her fear. ‘If it was Lord Mathis then someone would be taking me back to the tower.’
Anya swallowed hard and tried to steady herself. She turned another page. Slowly she began to read. As the light faded from the last of the day, Anya found herself drawn into the book of ancient rituals. She took off her shoes so she could curl her feet up under her, but otherwise stayed dressed. There was too much unknown at the moment for her to feel comfortable dressed only in the night dress. What if the Matron returned? What if someone else paid a visit. No it was better to be prepared. Anya shifted her shoes into a spot where she could easily grab them if she had to run. Where she would run was a mystery as was how she would get out of the small room, but she felt better fully dressed with her shoes in sight.
The first of the rituals involved making sure the crops were bountiful. It involved long invocations to the moon and her divine wisdom and strength. Anya frowned. She had never heard of the moon being considered divine before. She knew of an old woman in the village who claimed that if you drank water that had been left to stand under the full moon then that night you would dream of your true love. Her mother had called it a silly superstition. That hadn’t stopped her older sisters from trying it.
Ten til Midnight 