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 63: Anya lifted a hand and touched her arm through the cloth of the dress sleeve.
Anya lifted a hand and touched her arm through the cloth of the dress sleeve. “What happened to them,” Anya asked.
The woman gestured to the pool and Anya bend forwards to watch. She saw others taken as she was taken. Each of them was brought to the same tower where she resided. She saw them while away their time with the guard watching. Time sped up and she watched the guard leave. Each time the prisoner was left with a small amount of food and the promise of a return of the guard.
Each time the food ran out, the guard stayed away and the prisoner perished. The body was then removed, the tower rinsed of any evidence of their time there and soon enough another person would take their place.
Anya frowned. “That makes no sense,” she said. “Why kidnap them, me, us, just to starve us to death?”
The woman sighed. “It is an old prophecy.”
“Prophecy?” Anya repeated.
The woman nodded. “That is the tower of moonlight. Or Lord Mathis suspects it is. The prophecy, or his version of it states that a child marked by the moon will come to power through adversity and that if they are imprisoned in the tower of moonlight then the person imprisoning them will control their power.”
“So he is kidnapping people with a crescent shaped birthmark, locking them in the tower and starving them to create adversity?” Anya guessed.
“Something like that.”
“and is the power supposed to be able to provide food for them?”
“Not that I am aware of,” the woman said. “I believe he feels that if they starve to death they are not that powerful and therefore not worth his effort.”
“I…see…,” Anya replied hesitantly. “And when he comes back to find me gone?”
“I believe we are about to find out.” The woman looked at the pool and Anya once again turned her attention to the images playing across its surface. She bit bag an exclamation of surprise as she saw herself imprisoned in the tower. She saw the guard leave and herself wait until night fall before escaping the tower.
“None of the others checked the grate,” the woman said. “I don’t believe any of them knew how to swim either, so perhaps that was the reason.”
Anya nodded. Her escape complete the tower remained empty. Anya knew the time was being sped up as the sun rose and set in a matter of seconds. Nothing moved until finally the guard returned. He had a resigned look on his face. He stopped the wagon and tied the horses to the post. He took a deep breath and climbed up the stairs. He didn’t bother calling out. Anya figured he assumed she was either dead or in to weak a state to provide much resistance. He entered the room and looked about. Only when he could not find her did he start calling out. It was a generic call and Anya realized that in the time she had been in the tower the man had never asked her name.
‘I supposed he didn’t want to get attached if I was just going to die on him,’ she thought. As the guard failed to find her, either living or dead, his search grew frantic. Once certain she was no longer within the tower, he raced for the door.
Ten til Midnight 