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 24: Figuring they would do, she added the honey and sliced the lemon, arranging the slices on a plate.
Figuring they would do, she added the honey and sliced the lemon, arranging the slices on a plate. Penelope busied herself as the water boiled in the kettle. Mrs. Merryweather seemed content to look around and leave her to it. As she worked Penelope wondered why the woman was here. She was one of the family connections Jeannette was so concerned about keeping. Penelope knew she would have been invited to the big birthday dinner.
While Penelope made a joke of telling Jeanette that she would tell everyone she was leaving she hadn’t really planned to bother. She just planned to slip out of her old life and start fresh. As far as she was concerned they could keep the connections. She had no aspirations where high society went.
‘Still she has been to this house before,’ Penelope thought. She shrugged. She supposed she would find out soon enough. The water boiled and she poured it into the teapot over the tea leaves. She then placed the teapot on the tray with everything else and walked it over to the seating arrangement, setting it down on the table in the middle. Mrs. Merryweather smiled and settled herself in one of the chairs and Penelope took the other as they waited for the tea to steep.
“As I said as soon as I heard that you had taken possession of your inheritance I had to come to see you,” Mrs. Merryweather said. She picked up a shortbread, lifting a napkin underneath to catch any crumbs. She bit into it with a crunch, the napkin neatly catching any crumb spillage.
“You were friends with my mother,” Penelope started. She had been told that of course, buit hadn’t really given much thought to it.
“I was and we often had tea here as we discussed things. It was quite different in those days. Magic was still hidden when we were coming up and well even when it started to be accepted, there was caution. Not everyone was a fan of acceptance.”
“No, I suppose not,” Penelope said. She knew that when the mage saved the Emperor’s life magic was proclaimed acceptable, but even with the law change, people were slow to accept it. Now, with those practitioners working for the crown there was more acceptance. Some of the acceptance Penelope knew was due to the fact that magic rarely impinged upon anyone’s everyday world. It was a skill the Emperor made use of for the good of the populous, not something everyone say. Acceptance was easier when it didn’t affect anyone else’s jobs.
Mrs. Merryweather smiled. “You don’t feel like you have magic yet,” she said. It wasn’t really a question.
“Not really,” Penelope admitted. “I feel a bit like it may have been a mistake.”
“It wasn’t, I assure you.” The woman said. As the tea steeped enough, Penelope poured out for both of them. “You will find your way but know that those of us who also have magic can sense it in you. If you needed reassurance from someone other than the lawyer.”
“I suppose that does help,” Penelope said.
“Each of us come to our magic in our own ways,” Mrs. Merriweather said. “Most start out with dreams that at first make no sense. Later of course you realize what they meant. Or at least interpreted them through the lens of what comes later.” She swirled honey into her cup and favored Penelope with an amused look.
Ten til Midnight 