For those just tuning in, this challenge is about taking a story idea from bare bones idea into a fully fledged story by writing consistently every week day for fifteen minutes. The sentence I end with on one day, is the sentence I start with on the following. Part one was Bob’s story and has nothing whatsoever to do with the story below. Part Two follows a character named Penelope. I have a few basic sentences to act as road marks on her journey. I am loosely calling that an outline. We will see where she ends up by the time the story is done. For now, we start Part two of the 2025 Fifteen Minute Writing Challenge.
Day 9: “What sort of inheritance?”
“What sort of inheritance?” Penelope asked. She never heard anyone mention any sort of inheritance before. She knew her mother was well connected but from everything she was told the family money came from the father’s side.
“Ah well, there are several layers,” Alvis began. “First, your mother left a trust that you come into on your twenty-fifth birthday, which was when we sent the letter. The trust was managed by the firm, at your mother’s direction.”
“Why?” Penelope asked.
Color rose to Alvis’ cheeks and he cleared his throat. “I believe that your mother was concerned that if something happened to her before you reached your majority then it would be rolled into family funds and used for your upbringing rather than be kept for your use once you came of age.”
He looked down at the papers and shuffled them seeming slightly embarrassed by the distrust. Penelope nodded. There was a small trust left for her education and there was an argument about it when it came time for her to use it. A chunk of it had been missing as a matter of fact, used for other things. There was enough that her tuition was paid but that was all.
“I can imagine,” Penelope said.
Mr. Alvis looked at her and blinked. He nodded and the color faded. Apparently once she acknowledged the truth of the distrust it became less embarrassing.
“Yes,” he said. “So we will be transferring that to you. There is also the matte of the family legacy.”
“Family legacy?” she asked.
“Well part of it is just a regular inheritance from your grandparents, but a good chunk of it was contingent on you inheriting the magic.”
“And despite not showing any signs of magic, I have inherited magic?” Penelope asked. She still wasn;t certain she believed Alvis, despite his blood test.
“You have,” he said. “There is a property in town. It is a town house. There is a living space as well as a small roof top garden. It is maintained by the trust of course, although I should worn you that the garden contains more plants as components than vegetable and herbs so you might not wish to make any salads from it.”
“Right,” Penelope said. “No poisoning myself with healthy eating.”
Alvis laughed. “Indeed. I believe there are a great number of books on the subject of plants. There are a lot of books in general. Many of which are designed to instruct you in the beginning of magic, specifically the sort your bloodline carries.”
“And what is that, exactly?” Penelope asked, curious.
“Ah well I wouldn’t know, exactly,” He replied. Alvis shrugged. “Prior to the Emperor declaring magic something that could be freely practiced all of the families with magic worked more or less in secrecy. They might have worked with other family, but even though we assist in passing things from one magician to another, we specifically avoided knowing the details.”
Penelope smiled.
Ten til Midnight 