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 53: Kasca shivered as she read the description.
Kasca shivered as she read the description. The Overlord valued nothing as much as himself and he wasn’t about to risk himself on an untried antidote. So he injected others. He made certain to infect others and then sent them out not the city to watch. He wanted to see if they were still contagious as well as if they could be cured.
The cleansing, he understood and tested on individual items, but as he wanted the contagion, he did not test that.
‘Which means even when he found someone who could be immune, he sent him out with contaminated goods after he was cured. That had been the final test, He wanted to see if the cure was permanent or not. He knew it worked but didn’t know if it was permanent or needed to be readministered if a fresh contagion was brought. As he sent out the last of his servants to watch, he found that even though the cure slowed the progression of his disease, it was too late to stop it all together. The extra time let him est further things and follow the progress of the last infected individual.
‘It seemed to be working,’ Kasca thought as she read the final page of the journal.
Unfortunately for the Overlord’s experiment, the final test subject was killed. Someone identified him as the source of the contagion currently sweeping through their village and smashed his head in with a rock.
‘So he didn’t know if it was a permanent cure or not,’ Kasca said. ‘And he lacked the ability to get new servants by that point.’
Kasca withdrew from the room and returned to her own body in the cottage. She stayed longer than she intended in order to finish the final page and for a moment she swayed, her head swimming as she sat at the table in front of the now inert bowl. Kasca took a deep breath and let her body settle for a moment. Then she reached for the small bowl of dried apricots she left on the table for a quick boost of energy when she returned. Her experience over the past few weeks teaching her that such a thing was always a good idea. Slowly she nibbled the fruit.
Her dizziness began to fade and although she was still hungry she now felt refreshed enough to make herself a proper meal. Slowly she stood. Her actions as she made herself a meal were deliberate, measured. She could feel that she pushed it too far. Often she had to stop what she was doing and stand still, letting a wave of dizziness pass before continuing.
When the meal was ready she gratefully sat down. Here she ate slowly as well, each bite measured so she could let her body accept it before she added another. She knew if she took the big hungry bites her body wanted, the food would sit like a weight in her belly. It would be painfully full and it wouldn’t be enough. She would need to digest and then go back for more. If she ate slowly, stretching it out, she could be filled but never uncomfortably full.
It made the meal a long and slow process.
Which also gave her time to think.
Not going back to the room where the Overlord’s body lay in a state of frozen preservation was a bonus. Knowing what would go into an antidote would be good as well. ‘As is the cleansing.’
With that knowledge, Kasca had to get it to those in the Sanctuary and hope that she was in time to save them. She looked to the notes she made and hoped there would be time to implement the cure.
Ten til Midnight 