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 50: There was a mix of anger and resignation in her when she learned of his plan.
There was a mix of anger and resignation in her when she learned of his plan. The overlord never cared for the people. They were resources to plunder as much as the land had been. When Kasca read of the study of his dying creatures, she saw his disregard. It was not surprising to see it extended.
The collectors were gathered by the few remaining personal staff, all of whom were at that point contaminated. He chose the ones who were showing minimal signs of the disease so others would not shy from them.
Uncertain how the disease was spreading he had shipments prepared with items he thought might be contaminated, blankets, baskets, and even contaminated food and water were placed in their supplies.
“Well not everyone’s supplies.”
He made the contamination a test. One group was not exposed to people carrying the disease at all. All of the other collectors were exposed to people carrying the disease. One set of collectors was sent out with no contaminated goods. One set was sent with the contaminated blankets, another with contaminated water and a final group with contaminated food.
He wanted to see which group carried more contagion. He studied his collectors and he studied the villages where they stopped.
‘I suppose in theory it was a good plan,’ Kasca thought. ‘By creating different groups, he might learn something.’
Unfortunately it didn’t work. However it was transmitted, the disease spread. Even the clean, uncontaminated group became infected and spread the contagion wherever they stopped. Kasca realized she had gotten lucky. With her need to head south quickly, she hadn’t stopped at any of the traditional locations. She knew she would look for the missing runners if she did.
Her plan was to look for them when she returned. By skipping the stops, hiding from the collectors and generally avoiding people, often with her shields covering her, Kasca avoided the contagion that was rampaging through the island.
The Overlord sought to study the disease in motion, but he quickly lost control. ‘And there was only so long he could keep his own shields in place.’
He lowered them when he thought he was safe. Because he saw none of his staff and magically brought his food and water from what he believed was a secure location, he thought they fled, that the contagion went with him. Given his formulas Kasca was certain that magically transporting the food and water had killed the contamination, she ran the rations and numbers twice before she could accept them.
What he hadn’t realized was that not all of the dead had been removed. The disease remained in his halls. Towards the end of the notes he realized that the keep would need to be scrubbed clean, the contamination burned out, as the Sanctuary was doing now.
Instead of cleansing his space, he fled. He took what he could, leaving the rest. In his notes he seemed to think he was leaving before the contamination reached him. He thought he was uninfected and planned to leave, secure new staff and return when the contamination passed.
Kasca read through his notes where he worked on the vaccine, the antidote to the contagion. Kasca was trained in such things. As the strongest healer the village had she was encouraged to push her skills as far as they could go. She was given extra time away from every day chores specifically to learn in case her skills were needed.
That she was also the one they sent away when they needed information was a bitter pill to swallow.
Ten til Midnight 