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 167: Anya shook her head and the dream remnant’s fell away.
Anya shook her head and the dream remnant’s fell away. ‘A talking statue,’ she chided herself. ‘What a silly dream.’
Warmed by both the movement of bathing, dressing in warm clothes and her morning cup of tea, Anya banked the fire again and set her empty mug to the side. She knew the room would cool quickly without her in it and as she started down the corridors, Anya thought it would be nice if she could keep the fire going longer without fear.
‘it warms up soon enough,’ she reminded herself.
As she walked, Anya realized she was less worried than the day before. The constant worry in the back of her mind was less. She frowned as she realized it simply wasn’t there. ‘I think it had more to do with Deran than the statue dream,’ she thought. During her talk with Deran he said the orb was what let the Matron see into places she normally wouldn’t see. He claimed that now the orb wouldn’t work for the Matron. As Anya slipped into the chamber containing the seeing sphere, Anya realized why the constant worry was gone.
‘The matron was the only one who could possibly see me once the hidden places were restored. I still don’t know if she is on my side or not, but I know that she can’t see me even in the spring when the season begins. If I believe Deran that is.’ As she stepped up to the orb and felt the warmth of it radiate out, Anya realized she did believe him. She didn’t know if it was because she wanted to believe him or not, but be living him calmed her fears of the future. She could study and figure out where she wanted to go without the pressure of a timeline. She would not have to monitor the snows and worry about leaving before they melted fully away.
‘If I left I could leave at the end of the season, slipping out with the others unnoticed,’ Anya thought. ‘It would certainly be easier than trying to leave on my own with no groups to blend into.’
She hadn’t figured out where to go, but it would be a safer escape. Anya set the thoughts to the side, but kept the lightness that she felt from the lack of worry about the matron’s sight returning. She settled her hands on the sides of the globe. The warmth sunk into her hands and she found herself shivering as though her body registered the cooler air of the room because of the heat of the orb. As usual the sight of the room around her with the overlap of the entire House of the Star was disorienting, so Anya closed her eyes so she could concentrate on the views the orb was showing her rather than the sight of the room around her. While her thoughts usually directed her sight, today Anya had little conscious thought before her sight was zooming across the interior rooms of the house and focusing on the Matron.
‘I suppose because I was thinking of her earlier,’ Anya mused. The matron was finishing her dressing for the day. Her clothes were on and she was pinning up her long locks into the style she would wear throughout the day. To Anya’s surprise she was frowning as though deep in thought.
Ten til Midnight 