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 61: She waved a hand over the water in the basin and a white mist began to rise from its surface.
She waved a hand over the water in the basin and a white mist began to rise from its surface. An image formed and Anya leaned forward. She saw her sisters, holding hands off to the side and herself still in the cradle. The man she thought of as her father walked into the room. He nodded to the girls and continued past.
The image followed him through the house and into the back bedroom. The house was much grander than the one she knew in Tyrin, the owner clearly a man of some wealth and import. While this hose was not a great house it was the sort that in Tyrin would have had someone in to do the cleaning and possibly a live in housekeeper. In the back room she could see a man lying in the bed. Another man seated beside him.
The man in bed bore a striking resemblance to the man she knew as father. He was withered though, the muscle and skin pared back to the bone. The bed was draped with healing herbs but it was clear that they would be of little assistance.
“Ah you are here, good,” the man in the bed said. His voice was weak. It was a wisp of a thing. “Don’t come too close, I would spare you if this thing is contagious. Thus far it has taken my wife and now it is taking me. I don’t want you to come to harm any more than I wish it to take my daughters.”
“I understand,” the man she knew as father said. “I came as soon as I heard.”
“And I thank you for it,” the man in the bed said. “Even though you are a half-brother, and in the past we have not always seen eye to eye, you are the only family I have left. I would have my daughters raised by family if possible.”
“I will care for them as though they were my own,” he said.
“I had hoped this would be so,” the man in the bed said. “I have provided dowry for all three so they need not be a burden to your household. Jerome here will act as witness.”
As Anya watched, paperwork was signed passing the dying man’s estate and care of his three daughters over. Once the papers were signed it was as if all the remaining strength drained out of the man. He faded quickly and was soon dead. The play of images in the water sped up and Anya saw the house and most of the household goods sold off, her father pocketing the money and loading the three of them into his wagon with the few things they were taking with them so the family could move to Tyrin. Time sped up and she saw the man she called father taking a selection of jewelry to the local jeweler and selling it.
Anya frowned. Kissa had been right, there was a necklace. ‘And there had been a dowry.’ She thought. The thought filled Anya with a mix of emotions, none of which she wanted to untangle in front of this stranger. The vision ended and a new image presented itself. It was the house in Tyrin. Her younger siblings looked much the same as when she left them.
Ten til Midnight 