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 104: Kasca unlocked the door to the private quarters and sent her cleansing wave of magic up the narrow staircase ahead of her.
Kasca unlocked the door to the private quarters and sent her cleansing wave of magic up the narrow staircase ahead of her. The staircase was narrow and steep. It was as though someone wanted to allot it no more space than a ladder but was forced to concede slightly more room. The treads on the stairs were only half as wide as she was used to.
Kasca climbed up to the top of the staircase and found another door. After searching her keyring, Kasca found the key needed and unlocked the door. Her magic washed through the space.
She blinked as the blue light flared to red in bursts of sparks. Even if she hadn’t been told that the apothecary died from the disease that was still moving through the kingdom, Kasca would have known. There was simply too much contamination present for anyone in the space not to have contracted the disease. She found it oddly satisfying to watch the blue lights of her magic burn off the contamination. She moved through the apartment slowly making certain to be thorough in her cleansing. Once she finished with a single pass, she made a second to be certain no trace of the disease remained.
Finally, she let the spell go, satisfied the space was cleansed. With the magic faded, Kasca sighed and took a look around. Ther was a small sitting room. The furniture was heavy and looked worn. She suspected any decorative items like pillows were removed as they looked oddly bare. All of the small pieces were gone. There were light squares on the plaster of the walls showing where paintings, drawings or prints were removed. Ther were empty shelves with dust showing the shadows of the bases of the items taken. There were no books of course as books were expensive and easily sold to a dealer.
The kitchen fireplace was well placed even though there was no wood in the box. The shelves were bare as was the pantry. Kasca moved down the hall. She saw the smaller rooms where apprentices would stay. They had bedframes but little else. She moved to the main bedroom. It too was stripped but the large bedframe was still in tact. Kasca checked the ropes and found them sturdy. She was pleased to find an old chamber pot tucked under the bed as well. It seemed pushed to the back and forgotten as though a better one was purchased but the old one was kept just in case.
In addition to the bedframe there was a large wardrobe. Looking it over Kasca could see why it wasn’t taken. ‘I don’t see how they got it up the stairs in the first place.’
She doubted it would fit in the narrow stairwell. ‘Maybe through one of the windows. The windows were large and let un a lot of light. ‘Especially since there are no curtains.’
Despite being stripped down, the place had a comfortable feel to it. Kasca moved to the large window in the bedroom and looked out. From it she could see the small garden in the back of the house. She could certainly see some green coming out of the newly warmed ground. She couldn’t tell what the items were from here, but liked the thought of seeing a patch of green.
She smiled and then found her smile stretching into a yawn.
Ten til Midnight 