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 54 : She looked to the notes she made and hoped there would be time to implement the cure.
She looked to the notes she made and hoped there would be time to implement the cure. ‘To do that I have to contact them,’ she thought.
Kasca did not know the spell that would allow contact with the Sanctuary. She was certain she should have asked after it before but it hadn’t occurred to her.
She also suspected that those of the Sanctuary wanted to be the ones to decide when they spoke with her. Giving her the means to use the spell and contact them at will would remove some of their control. She looked at the shelf of books they left behind.
While they contained all sorts of spells Kasca didn’t know, she knew they were for the most part, household spells. She was thrilled to learn them as they made her life easier and she knew others would appreciate them, but she knew they were not high magic. She knew there were different sorts. While she could never create the monsters that the Overlord created, the infusion of life sorts of spells well beyond her capabilities, there were other levels she could do.
Spells that most of the Toughed could perform in some capacity or other even if they weren’t on the Overlords level. Those spells were considered high magic rather than cottage magic however. None of the books contained that sort.
While Kasca was willing to believe that someone who lived in a cottage away from the Sanctuary proper might have more use for cottage spells, there were also empty spaces on the shelves where it was clear certain items had been removed.
‘And then there is the disease itself.’
That part bothered Kasca more than anything else and it was a worry that grew in her mind the more she studied. While much was a mystery there were two indisputable facts. One was that the disease took a combination of science and High magic spells to create. The second was that the Overlord did not create it.
‘It took him weeks to realize there was a magical component to the disease,’ Kasca remembered as she slowly ate her meal.
It left a bit of a problem.
One of the Overlord’s first acts was to destroy anyone who used magic or had magic in their blood. He confiscated all of the volumes that could teach high magic and destroyed the schools. Some said the reason that he wanted the bulk of his citizens to forget reading and writing was so that if they came across any books of magic he might have missed, they would be incapable of using it. The other part was that not reading and writing kept them ignorant and easier to control.
‘But many thought magic still played a role.’
The only place of magic the Overlord had not been able to destroy was the Sanctuary. ‘Which does narrow down the candidates as far as who created the disease.’
Logic made it fairly simple. If the Sanctuary and those working there did not create the disease then someone who studied at the sanctuary and then left, was more than likely responsible. ‘I suppose it could be someone who found a cache of books on their own and created the disease, but she wasn’t certain there was such a cache of books.
‘I suppose it could be the same as when we hid grain from the collectors,’ Kasca thought.
Still it was a long shot and it still left the Sanctuary or someone tied to the Sanctuary as the most likely origin point.
‘But they weren’t infected until after the rampage through the rest of the island.’ Even the devastation she saw when she looked in on her home was more advanced than that of the Sanctuary.
‘Unless they managed to contain it for a time.’ Kasca frowned, uncertain what to believe.
Ten til Midnight 