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 115: Anya moved the bar into place with a thunk.
Anya moved the bar into place with a thunk. With the bar in place Anya felt a little more secure. Worried about the possibility of another exit, Anya turned from the barred door and looked around. To her surprise the room was well lit.
Above was an enormous dome that looked as though it was carved of rock crystal. Through it light entered the space, illuminating everything. There wasn’t a lot to see. The room looked like it had once been a dining hall or some other gathering spot as is was large enough to hold a great number of people. However it now held only one item. In the center of the room underneath the large dome was what looked like a glass sphere.
Anya frowned as she looked at it, wondering if it had a purpose. She wondered if it was part of some ceremony. ‘It looks a bit like the moon,’ she decided. ‘And the ancient empire seemed to be fascinated by the moon.’
Deciding that finding a second exit might be for the best, Anya crossed the room, giving the central sphere a wide berth. She didn’t think it would do anything as it seemed very much like a moon shaped statue placed atop a small plinth, but it looked barely balanced and she could easily see herself knocking it over and making a large noise as it crashed to the floor stones.
‘And whether he can see the hidden door or not, I’m sure he would be curious about the noise.’
Safely past the round sculpture, Anya spotted another door. It had a door that, when she opened it led to a narrow, winding stairwell. It went up and to Anya it looked like it might go up to the rock crystal dome on top of the room where she was standing. She wondered if it was like the platform where Marta took her to look into the stone basin.
Before she could climb the stairs to find out, putting even more distance between herself and Lord Mathis, Anya heard a noise behind her. She blinked and looked back. There was a low hum coming from the room behind her. She looked around but nothing in the room had changed. Worried the hum might attract notice, Anya stepped back into the room. She walked towards the center and realized the hum was coming from the large statue.
Had she made it start to hum? Anya raced back to the small doorway leading to the stairwell and closed it, thinking that opening it might have started the humming. The door closed, but the humming sound remained. Anya frowned and walked back to the sphere. She circled it slowly looking for the source of the hum. She could find nothing. Tentatively she reached a hand forward and placed it on the sphere.
The humming stopped.
She pulled her hand away and the humming returned. Anya put her hand back on the sphere. Again, the humming stopped. She chewed on her lip wondering if she should just keep her hand on the sphere until Lord Mathis left.
The sphere felt as smooth as glass beneath her fingertips and began to warm. Anya frowned wondering if the heat from her hand was warming it or if it was warming on it’s own.
Ten til Midnight 