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 138: She would prefer to work in the back and only attend to those needing her to assess their treatment needs.
She would prefer to work in the back and only attend to those needing her to assess their treatment needs. ‘Maybe when this settles down and everyone sees Darien and the others made it through okay I’ll have a better chance of getting a regular clerk.’
She was certain a lower mortality rate would help bring more applicants. ‘Hopefully they are good,’ she thought. Despite being temporary, Darien was really good at keeping the front of the shop flowing. ‘I think it helps that the regular customers aren’t coming in.’
No one came in asking about mustache wax and debating on the different scents a pomade could hold. There were no specialty requests to alter the flavors of certain tonics or the scents of creams. The shops function was paired down to the basics for the moment.
‘If anyone comes in for a basic cough remedy I haven’t heard about it.’ While this did make things run a lot more smoothly, Kasca did worry about it. She knew some people stocked up on basic remedies when the seasons turned, however there were many infections and diseases that could kill people other than the Blood Death and she didn’t want them dying simply because they were infected with a more common disease.
Kasca thought about checking in on the town, doing a scry through to see if others were suffering but she didn’t have the energy at the end of the day. She woke before the others arrived and opened the doors when they did arrive. Afte closing she continued to work in the back until she was too tired to guarantee the precision of her measurements. Then she went upstairs, ate something simple and fell into bed.
The next day she did it again. Beyond cleansing her shop and apartment routinely her one extra element at this point was bathing. If she managed to keep herself clean and fed she considered it a good day. There were evenings where she suspected that if the water in her pitcher wasn’t cold, she would have fallen asleep while bathing.
She contented herself with the knowledge that this too would end.
At the moment it didn’t seem to be slowing. In addition to the walk in customers, Kasca had most of the great houses send messages. There were those in the city and when she asked after a few of the addresses, Kasca found that there were several in the countryside who were sending out for remedies. Many of them were sending in batch requests after a certain point.
‘We find many of our house infected at this time. We require six treatments for those who have never before been infected with the Blood Death and sixteen for those who have had the disease once before. Please find the fee enclosed.’
There were many such missives. Only the numbers varied. As with her common treatments, the cost of the remedies for the Blood Death soon became known and payment was sent in with the request. It saved the messenger a return trip and allowed the treatments to go out more quickly. The physics and the surgeons also began putting in batch requests.
With those, Kasca had to check first that they were for actual patients. If they were, she sent them right away. If the physic was trying to stockpile she would only fill their supply when they ran out. Kasca explained the reasoning and they seemed content. Thus far everyone was being reasonable, but she suspected this would not last.
