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 103: Kasca nodded.
Kasca nodded. Her guide did not seem to be interested in going upstairs and she guessed it might be painful for him. Having shown her the basics of the place and announced to the street that she was indeed the new legal owner, he seemed delighted to go on his way.
“Thank you,” she said as she walked him to the front door.
“How long until you are open?” he asked as he stepped outside. His voice was again pitched to carry and this time no one made any pretense of not stopping to listen to the answer. Kasca thought there might be more people than before in the street.
“I will need to do a thorough cleanse of the building and take stock of the ingredients here, adding replacements and such. I will also need to replenish the stock of remedies. It should take me five or so days,” she told him. “I will make certain the sign is out once I am open for business.”
“Good to hear,” he said. “I’ll pass the word.”
Kasca nodded. He left and she smiled and nodded to the others in the street. They sent friendly and curious looks her way. As she closed the door, they moved towards him. She heard the words magical healer float through the conversation. She closed and locked the front door.
“Well if I am openly magical then I suppose no one should mind seeing a cleansing. Kasca had no idea what sorts of contagion might have passed through the space and had no desire to let them longer. She put her back to the closed door and concentrated. Her magic sparkled blue as it came to her finger tips. She let it move through the space in a wave. Where the cleansing magic encountered contagion of any sort it burned through it, emitting a spray of red sparks. There was move red in the shop than she had seen in any place previous.
‘More sick people coming through,’ she reasoned as she moved away from the door and into the interior of the building. She risked a glance over her shoulder and saw that several in the street stopped to watch the blue glow proceeding through the space.
‘I suppose I am going to be noticed,’ she decided. Kasca felt exposed but she knew she needed to squash that feeling down. She needed to establish her presence here if she was going to make it her home. This wasn’t a rented room with a thieving landlord. This wasn’t a quarantined space on the sanctuary or a shielded cave. This was the place where she was going to make her home.
‘Hopefully,’ she told herself.
Still Kasca was relieved when the front of the shop was cleansed and she was able to go into the back workshop. She was certain some light might sneak through the door but she at least would not have to watch people watching her. She locked the door behind her and cleansed the workroom. She knew she would have to investigate the yard and see what the early spring growth was pushing up through the sil as well as what contaminants the yard held, but for the moment she was more curious about the living quarters.
‘I hope there is some form of usable bed,’ she thought. She suspected that as the cloth was valuable the bed linens had been stripped and taken away so she would still have to use her bedroll, but the thought of not curling up on the ground and sleeping on stone of hard packed earth for the first time since she left the sanctuary was her hope at the moment. Kasca unlocked the door to the private quarters and sent her cleansing wave of magic up the narrow staircase ahead of her.
Ten til Midnight 