The fifteen minute novel writing experiment is an 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 189: While much of the inner hidden parts of the House were restored, it was still a work in progress and she was taken deeper into the mountain than the restorative magic reached.
While much of the inner hidden parts of the House were restored, it was still a work in progress and she was taken deeper into the mountain than the restorative magic reached. Buried deep in the mountain was a series of rooms. They looked like grand quarters with a large bedroom paired with a bathing chamber far more opulent than the one she had been shown in the quarters Marta assigned her. There was a spacious study, a workroom and even a kitchen. Attached to the kitchen was a store room.
The quarters was large enough to live comfortably and it was so deeply embedded in the hidden parts of the mountain that Anya was certain that she could yell and not be overheard by anyone in the occupied parts. Even as she wondered why the orb was showing her this area, her vision continued down a path. It was an area adjacent to the living quarters, but Anya could not figure out its use. Most of the details were still buried under the dust of ages but she thought they looked like troughs of some kind. They stood in long rows, the heights varying. There were hollow glazed clay piped that connected them to each other and to the walls. Anya wasn’t sure what they were for either. The room was shadowy but some light came in through the air vents. By the light she could see what looked like panels that could be lifted with a pulley system. To Anya they looked like windows.
‘But why would windows be set into the ceiling?’
Even as her sight moved on Anya wondered what the room was used for and why it was being shown to her. Her sight travelled down a featureless corridor. She was aware there were rooms and other corridors that branched off to the side, but she was whisked by them far too rapidly to get more than the sense that they were there. And then her vision stopped.
Anya found herself looking into a room that reminded her of the temple from her dreams. There were long pillars reaching up to a domed ceiling and the statue of a woman seated on a throne. There was little light in the room and all was draped with dust but the woman looked like the statue from her dreams.
In the room with the orb, Anya held her breath. The statue did not speak and Anya relaxed. She let out her breath in a slow and steady stream and as though the orb had finished showing her what it decided she needed to see, Anya’s vision returned to the more occupied areas. She found that she was now able to direct her sight, choosing what to look at and leaving the dim shadowy rooms behind.
Anya looked in on the Matron and Marta and found them behaving as before. However with the others who lived in the house, gossip was afoot. Marta’s gathering of supplies had not gone unnoticed. All within the house knew of Anya’s fleeing back to Dovish.
Ten til Midnight 