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 140: Kasca knew the vials would make their way to those outside the city who might be infected as well.
Kasca knew the vials would make their way to those outside the city who might be infected as well. For a time it seemed that the number of people in her shop increased daily. The guards kept the peace, the clerks worked the counter and she worked in the back trying to keep their supply steady.
It seemed to be never ending.
Then one morning, she noticed the line waiting to get in when she opened was shorter. It wasn;t massively shorter, but the difference was noticeable. The afternoon crowd too seemed to have thinned a bit. Kasca thought it was wishful thinking but before bed she counted out the vials and noticed they had slightly fewer sold than the day before.
She wasn’t willing to call the infection over, but it was a positive sign. In the days that followed the reduction continued. There were still a lot of people arriving on her doorstep, but by the end of the week she wasn’t the only one noticing it.
“I think we may be coming out of it,” Darien said cheerfully as they locked up one evening.
“Don’t jinx it, man,” one of the guards hissed at him. Daren, lost his smile and nodded.
By the end of the second week they were all certain the numbers dropped. Kasca used the number of vials left at the end of each day as a tally. She liked that the numbers backed up what they all thought they were seeing. Knowing that the vials would keep if she stored them well, Kasca continued her production thinking a stockpile would not be a bad thing.
‘Even if we are coming out of it now,’ she thought. ‘There is the distinct possibility it could come on next season.’
As they worked the weather truly turned. Autumn faded and winter was starting to settle in. Kasca thought that might be helping to reduce the spread of disease as well. While infected could pass it to everyone in the home, fewer were traveling so one infected home might not infect another. ‘And if we keep more of the homes uninfected then we will be doing well.’
Kasca also realized that the money from the till was adding up. She knew that storing so much here in the shop was an invitation to thieves, despite the protection spells she put on the property. She knew there was a bank in town but also did not have the time to get to the bank to set up an account.
She waited until the infection died down enough that she could sent the two extra guards and the second clerk back to the magistrate. One afternoon, when there was a lull, Kasca took a section of her till to the bank and opened the account. She refused to take all of it at once, but once established decided to make regular deposits. At first the bank seemed nervous. Then she explained it had been magically cleansed from any disease and would therefore not contaminate anyone or anything. She performed a second cleansing ritual and while her coins did not burn off any sparks as the disease was removed, there were several sparks in the bank.
Seeing it the bank manager asked if she would perform a once a week cleansing for them when she arrived. She agreed and they added a an extra few coins to her deposit as payment for the service.
Kasca thought it was a decent enough arrangement. They seemed relieved and Kasca realized that they would have seen a lot of infected business as items were passed from those who died of the Blood Death to their heirs. She shuttered to think of what might be contaminated in the bank vaults.
‘Probably why I have to cleanse my till so often,’ Kasca thought as she headed back. She imagined that any coins deposited would pick up contamination from the other items stored in the vaults.
As Kasca was cleansing everything as a matter of habit now, it wasn’t her biggest concern but she thought that perhaps a deeper cleansing for the bank might be something she offered when things slowed down again. As it was, by the time she got back to the shop. Her work was already in demand. The spread of the disease may have slowed, but it hadn’t stopped.
