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 201: “Indeed,” the King replied.
“Indeed,” the King replied. Silence returned and the men rode forward slowly, no doubt looking for further prey. The silence between them stretched and Anya studied Lord Mathis. He seemed to have something he wanted to say to the king but at the same time he didn’t look certain about bringing it up. Anya watched the mental debate shift his features as he debated options.
A glance at the king showed Anya that he saw the interplay as well. A small smile momentarily tugged at his lips as he turned slightly away from Lord Mathis.
“I was wondering, your highness, if we might discuss the Fairweather Estate,” Lord Mathis said.
“Circling back to your prey?” the King asked. He kept his face politely blank as he said the words. Lord Mathis winced.
“Not exactly your majesty,” he said hurriedly. “It was just something I thought to bring up now that things have quieted.”
“And I thought you wanted to see how my hawk’s training was coming along.”
“That is always of interest, your majesty,” Lord Mathis said. “I often rode with your father and watched how masterful he was with his training of the hawks.”
“And you wished to see how like my father I was?” the king replied.
“Not at all,” Lord Mathis said. “I merely enjoy which the taming of the bestial nature of the hawks to a more useful purpose and suspected you would be as masterful as your sire and would be a pleasure to watch.”
It was an odd experience for Anya to watch Lord Mathis stumble in his conversation with the king. It was clear he didn’t want the Fairweather Estate tied to thoughts of prey, or at least she thought so. It was also clear that he wasn’t all that comfortable with the king.
‘Almost as though he is getting to know him.” Anya wondered how long this king had been king and if Lord Mathis had only managed a relationship with the father and was still determining how to work with the son. As she was used to thinking of Lord Mathis as this powerful noble who was to be feared it was exceedingly strange to watch him as he tried to return to more pleasant conversational topics. The subject of the Fairweather Estate was not brought up again and instead weather, hunting and feasting were discussed.
He reminded Anya of her older brother when he wanted to talk his parents into something he knew they would not immediately approve.
‘He wants to tread lightly around the topic and be sure about what he says,’ Anya realized. “Which probably means the Fairweather Estate is important to him.” From the name Anya assumed it was some sort of estate. It was not an estate she heard of before. ‘Although it could be the broken down manor house where I saw him before.’ Anya wasn’t certain why he would want the manor house and estate unless it was simple because it was close to the tower where he liked to lock people up when testing their magic.
‘Maybe there is something important about it,’ she thought. ‘If that is even the Fairweather estate.’
Ten til Midnight 