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 43: The next morning Kasca woke, recovered from her efforts and ready to return to the search.
The next morning Kasca woke, recovered from her efforts and ready to return to the search. She went through her morning ablutions and ate her breakfast. The snow was starting to melt but there was still enough on the ground that she could fill her bowl with snow and let it melt by the fire. She wasn’t sure exactly how the sanctuary fared but knew she needed to keep her fresh water for as long as possible.
‘Might want to melt snow so I don’t have to use any from the barrels.’
The thought had merit and before she settled in for her scrying, Kasca took various pots, bowls and containers outside. She made certain they were clean, filled them with clean snow and brought them into the house. While she wasn’t adding them to the water buttes outside, she would have them for the next few days of scrying as well as using them for any fresh water she needed in the house. She wasn’t rationing things yet, but she could see where there might become a need.
‘Especially as I know this water is not contaminated.’
She set the thought to the side and when the snow in her bowl was melted, Kasca brought it to the table and set herself before it.
The Overlord’s keep was easier to reach this time and she moved along the corridors. The decay was more pronounced in the bodies she passed, but otherwise, nothing changed. The Overlord’s labrtory was hidden. It took her a long time to find it. She walked past hidden doors that looked like walls. It was only when she tried to orient herself by walking through one of those walls to see where the room she stood in was in relation to the hall that she realized there were hidden rooms.
She expected a sealed off room with protections placed over it. She had not expected an entire maze of hidden spaces. Kasca was forced to begin her search again. She found rooms filled with books taken from around the island. Books that were considered too seditious for the population but too valuable for the Overlord to destroy. His own private hoard.
She found rooms of artwork collected from the estates of the fallen aristocracy. She recognized some of the older portraits from her history books. Those books were collected when she was still small, history not being something the Overlord wanted them to learn. After all you might find out there was something before him or find out that tyrants like him were defeated in the past. People could get ideas.
Many did not complain when the history books disappeared. They saw no point in history. It was in their opinion a useless subject to learn and they were happy to no longer need to memorize the dates of battles. They did not see the point of history, the lessons from battles both lost and won, the basic hope it represented by showing that things were not always the way they were at the moment. By reminding people that change was possible.
They saw a list of dates and boring facts they no longer needed to memorize and lost sight of what they really represented. Not only the possibility, but the probability of change.
Kasca pushed on through the warren of hidden spaces.
Ten til Midnight 