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 26: Penelope stared at the woman trying to process her words.
Penelope stared at the woman trying to process her words. “It wasn’t an accident?” Penelope repeated.
Mrs. Merriweather sighed. “I am sorry for the bluntness, but there is no delicate way to introduce murder into the conversation is there?”
“I …suppose not,” Penelope repeated. “You think my mother was murdered?”
“Yes but unfortunately I don’t have an idea who,” she said. She frowned into her tea cup. “I did feel a warning was necessary. There are divides in our world. Factions. Not everyone with magic likes everyone else. We are not a happy family. There is a lot of fighting over power. Some of that has ended as the need for secrecy has been eliminated.” She shook her head. “Some of it anyway,” she corrected. “In some cases it has simply added another element to the same old arguments. Now there is the added cachet of having the skills the Emperor finds most useful added to the mix.”
“I can see how that might affect social standing,” Penelope said slowly. Her mind was still mostly fixated on the fact of the murder and wasn’t quite ready to jump into an entirely new level of social wrangling.
Mrs. Merriweather smiled. “It is a lot to get used to, but there are journals in the library. There will be at least your grandparents and mother’s journals here. The estate library has far more generations shelved there in case you want to go back in time to see the beginnings of rivalries. Everyone in your family kept journals of course. They just tended to keep the most recent in town and the rest for deeper research at the estate.”
Penelope nodded slowly and felt a little of her rising panic easing. She liked reading and was a fairly quick reader. With books detailing the various family rivalries she felt she would be able to sort things out at least for herself.
“And you think that one of these rivalries led to my mother’s death?” Penelope asked.
“I don’t know,” Mrs. Merriweather said. “It could have but there were also other things going on at the time that could have been a factor.”
“Like my step-mother?” Penelope guessed.
“I do hate to say that and I don’t have any proof of her involvement. If I did I would have gone straight to the police with it. “Which reminds me. A copy of the police report is in the library as well. It is on one of the lower shelves. I slipped it behind the books so it would be hidden. The books deal with kitchen and general household magic so I hazarded a guess that no one intent on evil would be inclined to search for ways to keep a souffle from falling.”
“Probably not,” Penelope said. “Although I could see someone committing dastardly deeds needing to get a stain out.”
“Oh,” Mrs. Merriweather said. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
Ten til Midnight 