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 37: Kasca wished them well and moved towards her fire.
Kasca wished them well and moved towards her fire. In her bag she had a small carved trinket. It was small enough that it could fit in her hand. It had holes in it and was designed to be threaded with a leather cord and hold a drawstring bag closed. It was given to her as a good luck piece.
She added it to her bag hoping it would bring her luck. She also planned to think about the kind of bag she would make to go with it when she needed something peaceful and homey to concentrate on rather than the dire threat of being caught by the Overlord’s patrols.
The carved piece was from Vecerteron, where the Overlord was believed to have fled. The expansion of her scrying abilities to places she had not visited was not something she tried before, but the instructions were relatively simple. She needed to start the scrying process in motion and use the object as a focus, slipping it into the water as her magic took hold. If all things worked as they should then as the ripples died down from the addition and the water became smooth again she would be able to see the location of the object.
She had several other small trade goods in her bag. Mostly trinkets of no real monetary value but sentimental to her. Some she picked up when she was traveling, others were passed to her as gifts. The last time she left for any length of time, she had the feeling someone was going through her things. Small items were moved around and there were items she was certain were missing. She never found the reason, but when she left, Kasca packed all of the small trinkets that actually meant something to her. Given the wide array of places they were from, she thought they might give her an advantage more than sentimentality.
Looking at the carved piece, Kasca wondered if she ought to start with a less important destination, to practice before looking directly for the Overlord.
For a moment she paused, indecision freezing her in place.
“No,” she told herself. “Overlord first, if it doesn’t work I can practice with the other items and then try again with this one.”
Settled, Kasca moved into position. She gripped the sides of the bowl, two of her fingers in her left hand curled around the carved piece. Kasca focused, on Vecerteron, holding all the details she knew of the place in her mind. She dropped the carving into the bowl, hearing the plonk as it dropped into the water. She thought of Vecerteron and focused. The ripples stilled and the image became clear.
She saw Vecerteron. It was the largest city and capitol of The Feracan Confederation. It was said that the Overlord’s mother came from Vecerteron. She set the thought aside and allowed her senses to move through the city. At first, it looked like a bustling city. Trade was done, people moved from one place to another as they conducted their daily business. It was an average day in a large city.
Then she saw some of the empty market stalls. At first she didn’t think much of it. There weren’t empty stalls many and she didn’t know if they were always empty or if it was a recent change.
Ten til Midnight 