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 116: Anya frowned wondering if the heat from her hand was warming it or if it was warming on its own.
Anya frowned wondering if the heat from her hand was warming it or if it was warming on its own. She lifted her other hand up and placed it on the sphere. This time the glass was warm to the touch as her hands met the slick surface. She blinked as the sphere began to glow.
Anya blinked and suddenly she wasn’t looking at the orb anymore. She could half see the room around her but it felt as though she was suddenly hovering, the entire house of the Star splayed out beneath her. Seeing both the room and the entire building complex was disorienting so Anya closed her eyes. She felt the building all around her and could see down every corridor at once. She could see every person moving around at the same time and hear every conversation. It was a confused babble of overlapping words and shifting people. All of the movement made her feel a bit queasy.
‘Maybe I should focus on one, like Lord Mathis,’ Anya thought. As though her thoughts directed her sight, Anya suddenly found herself looking at Lord Mathis. He stood in the hallway with the matron, his friend looking more like a hunting dog than before. Anya recognized the corridor they were in as being right outside the musician’s gallery.
“We keep the doors locked so that people don’t wonder around in occupied spaces and become lost,” the matron was saying. Marta was no longer with them.
“But surely a brief look wouldn’t cause too much of an issue,” Lord Mathis said.
Anya wondered if Marta told the matron where she was hiding or not. The Matron shrugged. “I suppose not,” she said. There was a flash of something on her face that Anya couldn’t quite interpret. She wondered if the matron was still bothered that Anya could see rooms she couldn’t.
She watched as the matron unlocked the door and pushed it open. The three of them entered the space. The hunter with Lord Mathis looked eager and sniffed the air. He looked puzzled as he looked around the room. There was a flash of something that looked like disappointment darting across the Matron’s face. Anya decided it would be well worth remembering.
“He just loves looking at the details,” lord Mathis said as his man prowled the room. The hunter had a strange look on his face as he did so. He looked as though he was trying to work out a problem far too complex. The man moved to where Anya sat listening to the conversation. He paused there and sniffed. Anya wondered if he was scenting her and then realized he probably was as he moved towards the stairwell she used to leave. He took a few steps down, moving past the hidden door panel. He reached the bottom of the stairs sniffed around and then returned to the top of the stairs. He went up and down the staircase a few times and then shook his head.
The man then moved to Lord Mathis side. Lord Mathis looked at him and the man shook his head no.
Lord Mathis lifted an eyebrow and then lowered it. “An interesting space. Musician’s gallery if I am not mistaken. There is one just like it at the palace. I can see why you’ve closed it off. Do the stairs lead anywhere significant?”
“:I believe they run to the old servant’s quarters and kitchens. We no longer use that one as it is too large,” the Matron said. “We use one of the smaller kitchens.”
Ten til Midnight 