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 100: Anya stepped forward to look at the books.
Anya stepped forward to look at the books. She looked at the covers and flipped through the pages of the top book. The House of the Star was its title. “It would be nice to know more about this place,” Anya admitted. She looked around the library. Here there was just the one hidden study, the rest of the library looked as it had before.
“I think I might read in my room first,” Anya told Marta. “If that is okay.”
“Of course,” Just remember to return the books and new ones will be waiting for you as you progress. If you’ll get the stack of books I’ll get the notebook , pen and ink and we can get you settled.”
Anya nodded and they each picked up their burdens. “Would it be possible to get some cleaning supplies?” she asked.
“Are your rooms not clean enough for you?” Marta asked. There was an edge of amusement to her voice and Anya remembered eavesdropping the day before and hearing Dovish mocked for their extra cleanliness.
“The rooms are fine,” Anya assured her. “But there is a hidden study there and it is quite dusty and cobwebby. I thought I might tidy it and see what it held, possibly using it as studies progress, if I stay that is.”
“Oh of course,” Marta replied. Her amusement faded and Anya wondered if she had done the right thing in asking. “I can have some things sent up. Unfortunately if you are the only one who can see the room it will have to be you that cleans it.”
“I just want to knock the spider webs and dust off,” Anya said. “Even if I don’t use the room thinking of them will make me want to clean up the space.” Anya didn’t feel that she had an obsessive need to clean, she just couldn’t stand having a room cobweb filled and dusty that opened into her space be left so dusty without feeling twitchy about it. It was like having an itch and not scratching it.
Marta nodded. “I could see how that would be a bit off putting,” she said.
Together they walked back to Anya’s space and Anya was left alone in her quarters. The books were stacked by the chair in front of the fire, the ink bottle and pen on top of them. While curious about the House of the Star, Anya felt her eyes drawn more to the hidden study.
If Marta was right then she did have magic of some sort. It was an odd thought. No one believed in magic, not really. There were slight of hand magicians at feast day celebrations sometimes, but they were performers and everyone knew they were tricks. No one believed in real magic.
“But then there were the images in the water. Those couldn’t have been slight of hand, could they?” Anya turned the images round and round and tried to think of how they could be created using trickery. She came up with nothing that could explain it other than magic. Leaving the books that she picked up in the library alone, Anya walked to the hidden panel and opened the door. She walked in and pulled one of the books off the shelf.
She wiped off the dust from its covering. “Distance sight,” was written on the cover. Anya shrugged and took it back to her cleaned rooms, closing the hidden panel behind her. She sat down in the chair and began to read.
Ten til Midnight 