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 130: It was the last of the magic that sealed it.
It was the last of the magic that sealed it. The House of the Star lived on in Rulash it seemed, staying underground and out of sight until those who were seeking to snuff out the last vestiges of magic from the former Festian Empire ceased to be a threat.
‘Apparently the kingdom who destroyed the Empire wasn’t strong enough to hold it together,’ Anya realized as she slowly turned the pages. After the war the Hearon Kingdom’s rule over the former Empire’s lands began to disintegrate almost immediately. Small factions fought them, first in the name of the Empire but then, when they realized that they would not be capable of ruling the empire, they each started to take their own little bite. The little bites added up and the kingdoms were born much as Anya knew them from the maps she studied in school.
‘I wonder why no one mentioned the Empire,’ Anya thought.
Mention of it had been absent in all of her school lessons. She remembered wondering about the ruins and even remembered some of the others asking about them and who left them but never receiving a satisfactory answer.
After enough time passed, the House of the Star came out of hiding and eventually when the way was clear, several hundred years after the empire fell, they sent emissaries to the current location and Parts of the mountain opened up for them. Anya read the description and was relieved to read that they too were astounded by the lack of dust and age on the things they found. However it was not to remain pristine. The chronicler reported that while it was pristine when they arrived, each year more of the unused portions of the buildings fell into shadow and disrepair. In the season when the magical gifts of those in the House f the Star were strongest, they looked to find out why the building was not maintaining itself as it once had.
Those who look found that the magic sustaining it was fading and that it would only return when someone with the true magic of the moon returned to take residence. Apparently the magic of those in the House of the Star was not enough to sustain it.
Anya blinked. The others said she had magic and that it was different from theirs. Was that why the rooms were starting to be clean? A log shifted in the fire and Anya stood, stretching her legs to think before reading and to add more fuel to the fire. When she reached the box where the firewood was contained she paused. Earlier the fire box had been low, only a few logs , some small twigs and sawdust remained. It was enough to get the fire started but Anya suspected her fuel wouldn’t last the day and planned to acquire some when she went out in search of food.
Now the box was well stacked with freshly cut firewood, aged to dry it and ready for use. ‘Is this part of the magic returning?’ Anya wondered. She reached for a log and found it was solid, real. She placed it on the fire and settled it so it would burn slowly. She went to her pitcher and found she still had some water from the night before. In addition there were still leaves for tea. Wanting something warm to add to her belly and fill it a bit without depleting her few meager rations she moved her small kettle to the hook over the fire.
Ten til Midnight 