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 82: When they returned they reported to Jascon and his coterie of councilors.
When they returned, they reported to Jascon and his coterie of councilors. Kasca kept checking in to make certain she was able to listen into that meeting. The three weary travelers arrayed themselves in front of the seated elders. Jascon clearly in a position of command.
“So what is it you have found from speaking to the others?” Jascon asked. “Did they see the girl pass by?”
Two of the others looked to the man in the center and indicated he was to speak. “We found no one,” he said. “The towns we visited had been abandoned. There were signs of the disease striking them but the survivors moved elsewhere. We believe the Overlord moved them to a more centralized zone to preserve his power and keep them under his control.
“Even Harve?” Jascon asked.
“Yes,” he said. “In Harve it was apparent that when the disease started the people were moved to a cleansed area, despite the town being centrally located and serving as a trading hub.”
“If the feeder towns were abandoned as well, it makes sense to form a new central trading center,” One of the older men said.
“And to move the towns further away from the Sanctuary,” Jascon added. “The Overlord is trying to isolate us completely. I knew the girl was one of his spies.”
Kasca listened, first as everyone told Jascon how wise he was in not letting her into the Sanctuary and then they discussed what to do about the moved towns. Maps were consulted and the most likely places for new towns to be built farther away were discussed. Having criss crossed the districts many times Kasca could see that not only were their maps very much out of dates, showing obliterated roads but ignoring the new ones the Overlord had built to replace them.
‘They have been isolated here more or less since the Overlord’s rise to power,’ she reminded herself. They may have slipped a few people off the Sanctuary’s island now and again, but they travelled only a short way inland and knew little of the main island.
Kasca also found it interesting when the trio of men who went scouting presented the trinkets they collected as potential scrying tools. She saw them place small every day objects, such as the carved bead she used when she needed to scry. They did not present the council with th more costly and unique items they collected.
The elders seemed pleased with the collection and the times were passed around, their use in scrying discussed as the trio of men was dismissed to rest and recover.
Kasca watched them pass the items hand to hand. She hadn’t seen the items cleansed before packing. Certainly no one thought to do so now. She didn’t know if any remnants of the disease clung to the items or if the disease had passed.
‘I’m still watching the passes, so I have time to find out.’ Kasca thought. Remembering the notes she read on the progression of the disease, if the items were contaminated, she didn’t think it would take too long for the disease to be shown.
She estimated about a week and spent the time building her collection of spells and debating the passages off the island to use when the time came. She narrowed her options down to two by the time the first of the disease made itself known.
She spotted the markings. The slight redness, the wheezing in the lungs. She listened as others told themselves they were still in recovery.
The trio was affected first, followed shortly by both the council and those who worked in the laundry.
Ten til Midnight 