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 59: There were no windows and the woman paused to pick up and light an oil lamp before they continued.
There were no windows and the woman paused to pick up and light an oil lamp before they continued. They walked down the corridor until they came to a small doorway set into the wall. It was at least a foot shorter than the other doorways they passed along the corridor. The woman opened it and stepped aside. She gestured to the door and waved Anya forward. Anya stepped forward and found there was a small stair case going up to yet another floor. Anya stepped forward.
The woman closed the door behind her. Anya didn’t hear the sound of locks, but she did hear the sound of retreating footsteps.
There was light at the top of the stairwell and Anya decided she might as well see why she was brought to this place. She climbed the steep staircase and found the door at the top of the stairs had been left open. She stepped through it and found herself standing atop an open platform. She was certain the stone beneath her feet formed part of the roof of the room beneath but unless it was a small room, then the bulk of it was inside the mountain. The rough stone of the mountain formed one wall to her left. Behind her the door she stepped through was also carved into the bare rock. The other two sides of the platform space formed a curve as though the platform was built into a fold within the mountain’s face.
‘Which I suppose it might have been.’ Anya thought as she stepped forward. There was a stone balustrade that curved around the arched edge of the platform. The platform faced the setting sun. The light had gone soft and the sky was red and gold. A robed woman leaned against the balustrade. She didn’t move even though Anya knew she had to have heard her footsteps. Anya looked around. The room contained nothing but a large stone basin. It’s height reached Anya’s waist and it was wide enough that she could have lain across the center of it and barely touched one side with her pointed toes while her fingertips crazed the other side. At the moment the basin was fill of water. It rippled in the breeze and Anya shivered at the coolness of its touch.
“Forgive me, you are from warmer climes are you not, Anya,” The woman said. Anya looked over in surprise. The woman at the balustrade turned away from the sunset. Anya studied her features. The eyes were darkest black and almond shaped. Her cheekbones were high and her nose, perhaps a little too long for her face. Her mouth was wide and when she smiled, Anya could see the lines time carved on the woman’s face came from those smiles. She had the air of one who smiled more than frowned and who found life itself fairly amusing. Anya suspected that if she met her under ordinary circumstances she would like the woman.
‘But this isn’t ordinary,’ Anya thought.
“The rule about silence…,” Anya began.
“No longer applies to you, at least until you go back down into the main building. And then it is merely for respect for the others during their remaining solitude,” the woman replied. “Some will need all three days to quiet their mind and sort their thoughts, others will not manage that feat within this season.”
“And you think I have?” Anya asked.
Ten til Midnight 