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 101: She sat down in the chair and began to read.
She sat down in the chair and began to read. The book was fascinating. Distance sight, Anya soon learned, was the ability to see things that were far away. There were various versions. One would improve her eyesight so she could make out details from further away than normal, others would let her see things that were in far off lands.
Anya slowly worked her way through the pages and carefully read the words. The bowl of water that Marta used was mentioned, but so were mirrors and other methods. Some of the sentences were difficult and contained terms she found unfamiliar. Anya had to read slowly, often rereading sentences to puzzle out the meaning.
In addition most of the methods involved some sort of concoction and some of the plant names were unfamiliar to her. Anya vaguely recalled seeing some of them in the books she paged through in the library, but she wasn’t sure what many of them were. The mushrooms she knew weren’t mentioned but she did see the same naming pattern she found in the library books.
‘So I could probably look them up,’ she thought.
The simplest thing in the book was the enhancement to her own regular sight, however that would require a long list of herbs, mushrooms and minerals, all processed in some way before they could be combined to create the final product. To figure out what they were, she’d need several books from the library. To figure out how to process them correctly, she’d need several other books.
‘I suppose that is why the library is there,’ she thought. Anya looked away from the book and stared off into space. It seemed simple earlier. Fantastical and not quite real, but simple. Assuming magic existed then a person either had it or not. This book made that not so simple. It seemed a person could have magic and still need a lot of study.
‘Not to mention equipment and supplies,’ Anya found her thoughts drifting to Lord Mathis. He locked her in a tower, hoping the thought of starvation would bring her power, if she had any, flaring to life. No one mentioned what he planned then. She assumed he meant to use that power in some way. ‘It only makes sense to use it if he’s gone to the trouble to get it,’ she thought. ‘But how was he going to use it.” That was the question.
As always Anya’s reading produced more questions than answers. She decided to set the book on Distance Sight to the side for the moment. To study it would take time and resources if it was going to be more than something she read. While she didn’t know if she could find the resources, she still wasn’t certain if she would stay long enough to make it worthwhile.
Setting the book aside, Anya reached for the first book Marta gave her. It was the History of the House of the star. Unlike the slim volume she was given when she arrived, this one was thing and reminded her of her history books when she was still in school. She opened the volume expecting a dry history lesson. Instead the story, for Anya could think of it only as a tale, began with the battle for a place called Ferrian’s Gap.
Anya started slowly but the story soon drew her in. She was certain that Ferrian’s Gap was the place she was in now, at least it fit with what she had seen of it, even if it was called the House of the Star now.
Ten til Midnight 