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 202: ‘Maybe there is something important about it,’ she thought. ‘If that is even the Fairweather estate.’
‘Maybe there is something important about it,’ she thought. ‘If that is even the Fairweather estate.’ Anya had no way of knowing if the half abandoned manor house was part of the estate that lord Mathis wanted to discuss with the king. As the two men kept the conversation light and casual for the rest of their hunting trip, Anya learned nothing else. They didn’t stay out terribly long and Anya suspected the weather was more to blame than anything else. The sky was gray and lowering and it looked like rain. Given the way everyone was bundled up, Anya suspected snow rather than rain. She was less familiar with snow but she knew a storm of some sort was on its way.
When the men rode back to the palace, they parted ways. While Anya was curious about the younger king, at the moment he wasn’t hunting her. She left him be and let the seeing orb lead her along with Lord Mathis. He was calm and composed as he walked through the halls and then, when he was alone and left with a steaming mug of warming tea to counteract the cold, he allowed his temper to show.
Anya listened as Mathis grumbled about upstarts and fools. She listened as he complained at Perov’s lack of progress. After listening to those complaints, Anya realized that the man Lord Mathis sent to hunt her was Perov. As pleased as she was to have a name for the huntsman, she was even more pleased to find that beyond reporting she left the House of the Star he had reported no signs of her movements.
‘Well there wouldn’t be any signs,’ Anya thought to herself. ‘I never left. But at least he thought I did leave so that’s something.’
The name of the huntsman was the only thing Anya learned from watching Lord Mathis. After a time she grew tired of watching him grumble about others interfering in his plans and let her sight be whisked away.
‘I suppose I shouldn’t expect him to talk about the details of his secret plans in the few moments that I look in on him. Even if that would be helpful.’
She let her sight bring her back towards the huntsman Perov. ‘I’ll still have to look in on him every once in a while and I did learn that he is trying to talk to someone about the Fairweather Estate,’ she said. She didn’t know if that would or could come in handy in the future, but she filed the information away.
Perov the huntsman was still walking down the road searching for signs of her passing. She left him to it and decided to look in on the church in Tyrin and see if the statue was indeed as she remembered it. Sensing her desire the orb whisked her sight further south speeding her through Dovish and down to the coast where Tyrin was perched. Her sight slipped into the church. At this time of day there was no one inside. The building composed of heavy old stone was silent and waiting. Anya always liked the church. She loved that the stones that built it were huge and appeared to have another life before being brought to the church.
Ten til Midnight 