Morning all and welcome to the Fifteen Minute Novel. Here I take the start of a story idea and work on it for fifteen minutes a day. I started with an old writing prompt that interested me, cleaned it up a bit to fit the basic outline of the story I want to write and then set aside fifteen minutes each week day to see it grow. Each morning’s writing starts with the last sentence of the day before. And so now we have the story of Kasca…
Day 35: If someone contaminated managed to flee the island, the disease could easily spread throughout the continent engulfing the whole of Garondia.
If someone contaminated managed to flee the island, the disease could easily spread throughout the continent engulfing the whole of Garondia. Kasca felt a frission of foreboding, remembering the empty towns and villages she passed along the river in the last leg of her journey.
“Enough,” she told herself.
Knowing she had to occupy herself, Kasca took out all of her gear. She unpacked the entire pack, even fishing out the loose items rolling around in the bottom. Once everything was arrayed on the table she made a mental list of all the repairs that needed to be made. As she made certain her gear was sound, none of the repairs were things that couldn’t wait until she returned home.
At the thought of home the images she saw in the scrying bowl started to rise. Kasca shook them away. “No reason I can’t repair them now.” She picked up the first item, examined the worn seam and decided a patch needed to be put into place. She took it and the supplies needed to fix it to the chair by the fire and began to work.
Slowly Kasca moved through her gear. In between making meals and her other daily chores she repaired each of the worn items in her bag and even patched a worn spot on the bag itself. When she was done, Kasca packed up all the items she wouldn’t need in the cabin.
The glowing ball of communication returned on schedule. The man looked even more tired than before. Kasca told him what she saw when she looked but admitted she hadn’t extended her sight. They had someone who managed to get a personal item from the Overlord and found he escaped the island with a contingent of his creatures and his staff.
They couldn’t see more but they did give her the name of the place where the Overlord fled. “I believe I have something from there,” Kasca told him. “A small carved bead from a trading venture. “I could see if I can use it to extend my sight and see if I can get anything further now that I know where to look.”
“Please do,” He said. “Information is our most valuable resource.” He took a deep breath. “The contamination is spreading,” he informed her. “Drax is starting to show signs.”
Kasca nodded. He had been showing signs a week prior but she didn’t say anything. She wondered if she ought to have.
“Have you extended your quarantine?” She asked. “Isolating anyone with any symptoms that could be related to the disease?”
“We have,” he said. “The bumps that first appeared on Drax looked to be routine as he has allergic reactions to many things. Because of this we didn’t think about it. Now, any suspicious rash or really anything out of the ordinary is immediate quarantine.”
Kasca nodded even as she wondered if it would be enough. After all, Drax had been in the safe zone and moved around while infected. She knew pointing it out would do no good. They were doing what they could. Still, she couldn’t resist.
“Did you scrub down every surface?” She asked. She worked as a healer more often than anything else and knew many did not consider things to be carriers of contamination.
He smiled at the question. “We did,” he assured her. “We sterilized everything and the shields are in use much of the time.”
“I meant no offense,” Kasca said.
He waved the apology away.
Ten til Midnight 