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 95: It hinted at factions within the magical community.
It hinted at factions within the magical community. There were no details regarding those factions, just a mention that they were there. ‘Which I suppose makes sense.’ She doubted there was ever any large group of people that got along all the time.
‘Or a small group wither I suppose,’ she thought. Images of her family began to intrude and Penelope ruthlessly pushed them away, turning back to the book. While it was light on the interfamily politics, there was, to her delight a quick method of figuring out what sort of category a newly developing magic user’s skills might fall.
‘A simple test to aid in directing the initial studies,’ Penelope read.
“I am all for simple tests.” She turned the page and found that it was thicker than most. After a second, she found it had been folded a couple of times to fit neatly inside the book, but folded out into a long sheet. Penelope unfolded it and looked at the writing. It was less printed text and more widely placed circles each labeled
She scanned the labels. “Flora, Fauna, Minerals, Water, Wind, Fire, and Mental,” she read. Penelope narrowed her eyes. Mental seemed an odd label when mixed with the others. While those were the largest circles there were other smaller ones that included things like Dream, Travel and Farsight.
“Maybe mental is a larger category,” she guessed. The other circles were much smaller than the main row. Penelope turned the page over and found the simple test was quite simple. A stone on a long chain was usually used, the stone drifting to the circle of the main ability of the person with magic holding the pendant. Thee was quite a discussion as to what sort of stones were traditionally used and the merits of each. However, towards the end Penelope found a rather grumpy sounding admonition that as long as the item at the end of the pendant was heavy enough not to simply be pushed about by an errant breeze it would work.
‘A bit of string tied around a heavy ring would suffice,’ the author admitted.
Penelope smiled. From what she saw on the other pages it was clear the person writing the book liked pomp and ceremony. “Why use a regular cup when a crystal goblet will do?” she said. He didn’t like the idea that something mundane would work just as well.
“Which is just as well since I don’t have any of the fancier dowsing stones,” Penelope told herself. She thought about it and the many cupboards and drawers in the house she had yet to go through. “That I know of.” She conceded. For all she knew there could be a drawer full of decorative dowsing stones just waiting for this occasion.
Ten til Midnight 