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 93: Anytime he thought the population was too great there would be a collection.
Anytime he thought the population was too great there would be a collection. During the collection an assessment would be made. Everyone had to visit the town hall and check in, stating their occupation. The collectors who normally collected food and coin would assess who was needed to keep the town running and who was expendable. Those who were expendable were taken else where. Kasca was told they were settled in another town but no one ever heard back from those that left.
There were rumors of execution. When someone asked they were informed that as long as they were valuable to th town they need never find out what happened to those who left.
Even diminished, these cities were larger in population than any of Kasca’s villages. She wondered if a greater population meant that there were more people with immunity to the disease. ‘Or at least better able to resist it.’
Studying the people Kasca could see that there were gaps in the population from the wealthy down to the destitute. There were fewer elders and a lot fewer children as well. ‘Taking the weakest,’ Kasca thought.
She also thought nutrition might play a roll. The Overlord took so much from the people while giving so little back that most of them were kept on the edge of starvation, or at least close enough they could always see the edge. Kasca had eaten better at the sanctuary than she had in quite some time. She rebuilt her personal reserves.
‘My magic also grew,’ she reminded herself. It had always been present but with a regular supply of food it blossomed. She knew part of that was practice and learning but she thought a chunk of it was due to her being in better health.
She let these thoughts swirl through her mind. The people here were better fed than in her home. Even the poor seemed to have more than the average person in Deva as far as regular food went. There were those who had less but Kasca thought the fact that they were generally better fed meant they were better able to survive the disease.
There were certainly effects from the disease. Kasca looked at the empty spaces and saw that while in many quarters it raged, the city was beginning to reorder itself. People who held power, whether it was power among the nobles, the merchants or even the loosely allied poor, were taken by the disease. It left space for others to move in.
Some of the cities she passed looked more volatile than others. She could see that battles were beginning as those that remained contested for the positions. Others had the mobility but seemed less prone to violence. Kasca thought it might be because of more openings and fewer to contest for each position.
‘Regardless, less violence is good.’
The mobility within the city might be good for her. She could slip in and possibly go unnoticed during the upheaval. She suspected when some of the violence settled down there would be people moving from one place to anther as well so a new face would not excite that much excitement.
Kasca identified one of the lest violent cities. It was still in a state of upheaval but she thought she and her cures would be more welcome than in some of the others. ‘And there are no cages,’ she thought. Decision made, Kasca ended her scrying and emptied out her bowl.
Ten til Midnight 