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 132: She still felt her belly tremble with fear at so overt a display.
She still felt her belly tremble with fear at so overt a display. Her nerves settled when the other patrons were relieved by the cleanliness. ‘They lost a lot of healers to contamination,’ she reminded herself as she continued work. At the end of the day, Kasca made certain to do a thorough cleanse of the space.
There was some contamination leaking in, and she found it slightly worrying. ‘Carriers,’ she told herself. ‘Just a few.’ She wondered if they would become full blown cases or if the disease would remain dormant.
That night, Kasca forced herself to leave her work room an go up to her apartment. Seeing the contamination, her first thought was to make more of the cure, stockpiling it to make certain she had it to hand. ‘But it has been five days since the first cure was handed out.’
Kasca decided this was enough time to allow the medicine to work and possibly show some signs of reduction in the disease. She took out her scrying bowl and went on a search for the first patient. She found him, still at home and still looking wrong, but in much better condition than she expected. His symptoms had eased and he looked on the mend. Kasca then moved onto the second patient she sold the cure to that morning.
He was less recovered, but he didn’t look any worse. She made a note to look in on both of them regularly. With the sight of her cure seeming to be effective, Kasca allowed her sight to wander the city. As she did she reminded herself that she wasn’t spying on her neighbors, she was checking to see the progression of the disease.
What she found was not good and it made all worries about spying on her neighbors fall away. Kasca ended her scrying and came back to herself. She put her tools away and made herself a small supper.
The disease returned and the number of infected she found was greater than she expected. As she prepared and ate her meal, Kasca ran through her supplies and the number of vials of the cure she prepared. It wasn’t going to be enough. She needed to make more and to do that she needed time.
The magistrate had not returned to her with any shop keep assistants. “I will go to visit him in the morning,” she told herself. She needed the time to prepare as much of the cure as she could and to do that, she needed someone to mind the shop.
Kasca slept fitfully, images of empty city streets and abandoned towns filled her dreams. She woke up feeling tired. She ate her breakfast and dressed for the day. She went downstairs and put a sign on the door. Usually she liked to give more notice, but she would have to disappoint customers this morning.
The air was crisp and cold. It carried the tang of woodsmoke, and she knew the fires were lit for warmth as well as cooking this morning. She arrived on the doorstep of the magistrate’s office before the clerks arrived to open it up. They seemed surprised to see her there but invited her in to warm up while she waited for the magistrate’s arrival.
They built up the office fire and about the time the fires took the chill off the space, the magistrate arrived. He was surprised to see her but recovered well.
“Mistress Healer,” he said. “What a pleasant surprise. I am afraid we haven’t yet found an appropriate shop keep for you so you trip was in vain.”
It was clean she expected her to leave now that he informed her there was no assistant waiting.
“The disease has returned,” Kasca said simply. The magistrates and all of the clerks froze in place. “I have a remedy that will help but given the number of infected in the city I need time to brew the potion so that there is enough. I can’t manage the shop and brew enough of the cure at the same time. I will be purchasing supplies in the market when I leave here and will need someone in the front to mind the shop and help keep order when …when people get desperate.”
The silence in the office space was deafening.
