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 44: Kasca pushed on through the warren of hidden spaces.
Kasca pushed on through the warren of hidden spaces. They were more storage rooms than everything else. It was dizzying the number of things that the Overlord took. Some things Kasca knew he took in order to consolidate the wealthy into his own hands. Some he took for reasons of control, like the books. Others Kasca thought he took either to demoralize the population or simply because he wanted to prove he could.
In one large store room Kasca found piles of moldering high end materials. They were made into curtains and bedclothes. All had high end materials in their make up that the Overlord forbade the populous to use. Many thought it was an excuse to search as linen cupboards were raided and torn apart even as curtains were dragged from widows and coverlets from beds.
Everyone assumed he was either using it as an excuse or he had a desire for those items, using them for some other purpose of his design. Yet here they were, folded, stored and left to rot.
‘Perhaps it was just an excuse to search,’ Kasca thought. ‘Or maybe it was something more.’
Regardless of intent, the items were never used. Kasca found the sight of them so neatly folded and stored, disconcerting in ways she couldn’t quite articulate. She moved on. Finally in the deepest part of the keep, she found a series of laboratories. One space was clearly used to create the monsters. Surprisingly it did not look as though it was used in quite some time.
For a moment Kasca stared at the dusty equipment and wondered if the creatures were capable of reproducing on their own. It gave her a shiver of revulsion thinking that they could still continue to exist when the Overlord was gone. Given their appearance and behavior, Kasca had not suspected they could reproduce.
She knew they were dying much as any other creature was dying from the disease and with the Overlord gone there would be no one to replace the fallen. There was the hope the beasts would die out. They were after all not natural. They were clearly contrived using the parts and pieces of other beasts. Surely such things could not reproduce on their own.
But the machinery was dusty from disuse. Nothing bubbled and boiled as new creatures were brought from whatever sources the Overlord used. Kasca did see several drawings pinned to a board and she moved closer to get a better look. It wasn’t the disease she came searching for, but it was of interest.
‘And once done with my search and all the information gathered I won’t be coming back,’ she told herself.’
Kasca looked over the schematics and read the details. She was relieved there were mentions that specifically stated the creatures couldn’t reproduce on their own. There was a time line and as Kasca read it, she realized the Overlord, or his people had been slowing down production of the creatures for some time. They wanted to reduce the number to a few creatures who could be used for patrolling the keep, a a show of strength but no more. Their time of usefulness was at an end. There were, however, drawings of new creatures designed to help pacify other territories.
Ten til Midnight 