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 197: When she spoke with the matron briefly about her travels she was informed that Dovish was two months’ worth of travel away.
When she spoke with the matron briefly about her travels she was informed that Dovish was two months’ worth of travel away. She was fairly certain that Lord Mathis and his people took her on the river Fes as she didn’t think she had been traveling unconscious for two months before reaching the tower in the ruins of the Haverdown.
‘But I wouldn’t’ have a boat when I left and don’t really know the route,’ Anya thought. She suspected that the man would search by foot.
‘Which means he has another month of travel to reach Dovish. Maybe more.’ Anya suspected that part of his travels would involve searching for signs of her along the way. ‘He might ask people if they’ve seen me when I passed through town.’ Anya looked at the map.
‘But the Matron might have told me to avoid towns in case someone came looking.’ Anya thought. ‘That way if they didn’t know my town then they would have to search harder.’
Having never actually hunted someone down over long or short distances, she didn’t know what the tracker would do or how he would do it.
‘But I would think there would be at least a month before he reaches Dovish.’
Thus far Anya hadn’t searched for the man searching for her when she was with the orb. She just studied the House and the people in it while reading through the lessons Deran gave to her. She looked up from the map wondering if that was a mistake.
‘I know the orb can let me look further afield. It let me see Tyrin so if he is between here and Tyrin maybe I could see him.’ Anya leaned back in the chair, her hands still gripping the book. She knew that part of the reason she hadn’t looked in on the man was because she hoped that both he and Lord mathis would just go away. She knew they weren’t but she was happy to pretend that they didn’t exist if they weren’t here within the House of the Star.
‘But maybe I should be studying him as much as I study anything else. Deran was helpful but it had been centuries since he interacted with anyone and the kingdoms as they stood now didn’t exist so the politics of them were foreign to him.
‘They are to me as well,’ Anya admitted. ‘And I don’t have the excuse of centuries.’ Anya knew she had the excuse of being from a different kingdom but that wasn’t much of an excuse. ‘Especially singe Lord Mathis brought me here.’
There were books on Rulash in the library. Anya had seen them when she was first brought to the library. ‘Maybe I should add some of those to my reading list as I am learning about the uses of flora and fauna.’ While she found those lessons fascinating and was looking forward to foraging for the items she could only read about now, Anya suspected the lessons in how Rulash worked might come in handy as well.
‘And if I know where the man searching for me is as well as what Lord Mathis is doing then I would know it is safe to look through the library instead of just using the books here.’
She sighed and closed the book. Pretending that if they weren’t here, the men weren’t a threat wasn’t a good idea.
Ten til Midnight 