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 70: The others nodded, looking relieved by the distinction.
The others nodded, looking relieved by the distinction. “I think we are well within our rights to rescind now that the emergency has passed.” Jascon smiled at them. “Don’t you?”
“Yes, yes we are,” one of the men said, nodding. “Her boat is still on the shore where she arrived. It would be easy to take her back to it and send her on her way.”
“She could tell others out secrets,” another complained. “There is no telling what she saw when she was here.”
“When she spoke with me,” Gascon reminded him, “It was always at the cottage. Having never been here before she couldn’t come in unless invited, you remember our protections.”
The other three nodded looking relieved.
“So we are to just cast her out not knowing what she will encounter out there?” the man who didn’t want the disease released before the antidote was created said. He frowned. “We don’t know what damage the disease wrought.”
“She is not one of us. It is not our job to protect her.”
“No,” Gascon agreed. “It is not. She is either the Overlords spy and will return to him knowing nothing or she will contract the disease like the others and die with them. It is not our concern. In the morning we will have our men open the palisade and escort her to the water and let her go.”
The meeting wrapped up and realizing there was not much to learn, Kasca let her sight return to the mine where her body sat. She blinked, set the bowl to the side and stood. She paced a bit to get her blood moving and then wrapped up in her blanket to sit down and think about the scene she witnessed.
She knew that Gascon told the others that he found the antidote in a vision and they seemed to believe him. He was careful not to let anyone see the orb when she went to talk to him and give him the antidote.
‘I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that they are going to evict me now that the danger has passed.” Kasca snorted. “Now that their danger has passed,” she corrected herself. Kasca frowned. She didn’t know what tricks Gascon would have at his disposal. She also didn’t know how he would react when his men found her gone.
“The safest thing would be to add an additional layer of protection on he mine and stay here to watch for a bit.” She thought of her home in the far north. At the moment there was nothing to draw her there. She could not help her friends and neighbors by bringing them the cure or any of the magics she learned along the way. Her home was no more. There was no one left to help.
She needed a new plan.
Ten til Midnight 