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 241: Everywhere she looked there were touches of gilt, marble and onyx.
Everywhere she looked there were touches of gilt, marble and onyx. The room was the richest she had ever seen and caused the quarters Lord Mathis occupied to pale in comparison. Anya wasn’t entirely certain where to look first. The paintings on the wall tended to feature hunting scenes although Anya was relieved they were more scenes of the chase rather than anyone actually catching anything. The room had a distinctly masculine tone with darker colors and no florals.
‘Which I suppose means that Arkaron is a man,’ Anya thought.
“Was the question in doubt?” a man’s voice asked from behind her. Anya turned, keeping her hand upon the orb as she did so. It put her in somewhat of an awkward angle. A fact her would be advisor seemed to realize.
“Allow me,” he said. “I am guessing there are some constraints in your …location. I must admit I have never held a conversation in such a manner, so any thoughts on your part would be helpful.”
“Can you hear my thoughts?” Anya asked.
“Not as loud as I could hear that. It was a whisper at first, now you seem to be speaking at a normal volume,” he said. Anya could hear his footsteps moving and she turned as he came into view. Anya blinked in surprised and gasped involuntarily.
He stopped, his expression filled with surprise. “Not who you were expecting?”
“The Lady Bendesea only told me that someone named Arkaron agreed to be my advisor,” she said. Anya stared at him and tried to keep her mind blank.
“Ah very few actually call me that, but it is my name I assure you. And I suppose the Moon Goddess doesn’t feel the need to add the titles were mere mortals find so convenient.’
A whisper of thought escaped her and she saw Arkaron frown. “You saw me speaking with Lord Mathis?” He shook his head. “He was a …cronies, I suppose you’d say of my father’s. He found him useful for reasons I have yet to fathom. He is a powerful noble in my kingdom but hardly a boon companion.” His expression cleared. “That is the lord of power you were having trouble with. The Lady didn’t name him.”
“Yes,” Anya said. She looked at the man that Lord Mathis referred to as Sire. The man who she was certain was the king of this land. “I was using the orb to look in on Lord Mathis and see if I could find out what he was planning. He was going riding with you that day, hunting. He was trying to get you to grant him title to the Fairweather Estate.”
The kings expression cleared. “Ah yes a trivial matter of course, but you were looking in on him.”
Anya nodded. “Not so trivial a matter,’ she said.
He smiled. “But the estate is old and run down. There would be so much money needed to sink into the estate that he would be able to cause little mischief elsewhere. “
“Except the ponela wood makes it quite valuable. It is supposed to have gone extinct but it grows on the estate.”
‘Does it really?” He nodded. “Well that does need looking into then.”
Ten til Midnight 