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 56: Parts of half heard gossip, dismissed at the time and now starting to surface when there was nothing else to occupy her mind and her hands rose in her thoughts.
Parts of half heard gossip, dismissed at the time and now starting to surface when there was nothing else to occupy her mind and her hands rose in her thoughts. Was there a difference in the way she and her sisters were treated? Even though Kissa complained, it was all Anya knew and she accepted it as the way life was. ‘Unfair or not was not the issue,’ Anya thought. ‘It was just what was.’
‘There is no place for you there,’ the thought again rose in Anya’s mind and again it felt foreign, but in all honesty, she couldn’t deny the truth of it. She was sent to work in one of the great houses, even if that hadn’t played out as she expected. Her duties would have been passed to someone else. They simply couldn’t be left undone. Someone would have to do them.
‘And by now it would be habit for them even if the tasks were new when I left. Enough time has passed.’ Anya knew that if she went back, she wouldn’t be going back to her duties in the house she would go to work in the laundry. That was what made the most sense.
While Anya always knew this was the likeliest turn of events, she didn’t really have any desire to spend time working in the laundry. Both of her older sisters took the job in the laundry because they wanted to wed. They had sweethearts and were working towards a proper dowry. Anya had no sweetheart. She would be working to help save for her brother’s apprenticeship fees and then the rest of the money would go towards her own savings or towards the family income. She could easily see the work in the laundry spinning out into a lifetime of work rather than in leading her to a marriage. There simply wasn’t anyone in Tyrin that interested her enough, or that was interested in her enough. While she didn’t think her appearance turned off potential suiters, there was something about her that made them choose other girls. Anya had never really figured out why, but as none of the boys interested her, she never bothered over much with the outcome. If there had been someone who captured her heart, perhaps things would have been different.
Mid-day arrived and Anya temporarily shelved her thoughts to return to the dining hall with the others. She received a second cup of the drink given at breakfast. As before it was filling, quelling her hunger, but somehow feeling unfulfilling as far as meals went.
‘Still I suppose it is for purification rather than sustenance,’ she thought. She and the others drank in silence and then meandered out of the hall. This time others wandered around more, focused on themselves rather than staying in a group. Anya found her companions drifting away.
Anya was on her own, but as so many others were as well at the moment, it did not seem strange. Some of the women returned to their rooms as if seeking solitude for their thoughts. Anya decided she could at least go to her room and set her work basked there if nothing else.
Once in her room, Anya placed her basket down but found herself unable to settle. She stepped back into the corridor and instead of returning downstairs to the rooms usually occupied in the day, Anya found herself walking towards the library. She slipped through the corridors and was certain no one saw her. Given the bright midday sun, she didn’t bother with a lamp. When she arrived in the library she pulled the curtains wide letting in the bright sunshine.
Ten til Midnight 