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 46: Power, even secondary power, was appealing to many.
Power, even secondary power, was appealing to many. Kasca could not work up concern for those who willingly destroyed their own people for personal power. She hoped they were rotting somewhere but really cared nothing for their fate.
The room contained different schematics than the first room had, but nothing that mentioned the disease. ‘Or any disease really,’ she thought.
Nothing spoke of either creating or trying to cure anything medical. It was all about war machines and creatures suitable for invading different terrains. Kasca left the plans behind and pushed further into the hidden spaces.
At first, she thought there was no such space. She searched and while she found many strange things tucked away, mostly from pillaged parts of the island, she could find nothing that linked to any contagion.
Not wanting to give up, Kasca went into the Overlord’s private quarters. She looked through the space, this time not looking for the Overlord or getting distracted by the pillaged wealth taken from the rooms. She looked at the walls, the floor.
It was in the back of the closet that she found the secret panel. While she floated through the panel, being nothing but consciousness as she searched, Kasca could see the panel had some sort of complicated locking mechanism.
‘Fitted up with what look to be poisoned darts,’ Kasca saw. The mechanism was set to trigger if anyone pressed the opening mechanisms in the wrong order. ‘So even if they figure out how to get the different locks open the trap could still spring.’
It was an interesting design, but not what Kasca came for. She slipped through the panel and down the narrow winding stair to a room. This room held no dust. It also lacked the order of the other rooms. This was not a space that was abandoned as people ran. It was a chaotic mess of effort and research.
Volumes were left open and a look over them told Kasca there were an equal number of poisons and antidotes being studied. Ther were various concoctions, bottled and lined up in a row. Each one bore a number on it.
Kasca found a slate with the numbers listed. Some were crossed out, others had question marks by them. Kasca found scattered parchments where someone worked out the formulas. There were crumpled pages on the floor. She noticed one of the non crumpled ones corresponded to the bottle with a question mark on the slate. It looked to Kasca as though someone was reworking a formula.
‘As though they had some success but weren’t entirely successful.’
Stepping back and looking over the room it was clear that someone was trying to figure out a formula. Kasca found a slate listing the symptoms of the disease she knew was still spreading through the Sanctuary.
There were many closed notebooks as well as the crumpled pages she couldn’t see. Kasca thought of the extended spell that would let her see into those pages and books. She knew it took more energy and given the length of her search, she knew she had no energy to spare.
‘But I found the space,’ Kasca thought. It was a minor accomplishment.
‘I can come back.’
Kasca pulled herself back to her body, ending her scrying session. As she thought, her energy was depleted. Outside the storm howled. ‘I have time to go back,’ she thought. Now that she knew where to go, she would not have to waste energy searching and could visit until she found the answers she needed.
Ten til Midnight 