[YANS] (aka Yet Another New Story!) NaNoWriMo 2017 (COMPLETE)

Day 11 Redux - Magical Rules and Regulations

"Alright, so we're going to split this up." The Writer chopped off the first two thousand words into it's own post. "I love the fact that we're catching up again (even if it was without me), but there is no way I'm fitting this many words into one post."

"As glad as I am that you're back... we were doing okay without you." The Muse grumbled as she gave up her seat at the writing desk. "We could have gotten another thousand words of backstory done. Maybe."

"Yeah, but this is all side story, back story, DVD extras that won't make it into the book." The Writer scanned through the notes. "Or maybe I need to have two POV characters? This actually isn't bad."

"It's my story though," Khany glared at Jashn. "He was just supposed to be the token bad guy."

"She doesn't write token bad guys," he pointed out, " sooo..."

"So we have two main characters, one of which might not get a POV." Dragon said firmly. "The story we have right now isn't bad, I'm not sure it would benefit from his input, even if it's an interesting story too. He can have his own short stories in the universe if need be. Let's get this one done first."

"But my story is helping to drive this story," Jashn said. "Look, if I don't show up, what are you left with? Without some sort of outside force to raise the stakes you two could share a cave for decades without moving forward. Khany might learn things out of stubbornness and a burning desire to kill you off, but throw in something like having to save the town and suddenly there is a time limit on things."

"How much of your story does the reader really need?" The Writer looked over the notes. "Right now it doesn't look like any of this is actually important to the story as it stands. If things get more complicated as we go we'll revise using some of this, but it's all backstory."

"Fine, then by all means let's get back to the story that I'm not in yet." Jashn sat down in his comfy chair, crossed his arms and waited. "I'm sure you have lots of exciting things that need to be done. Like describing the scenery."

Khany glared, the Writer sighed, and Dragon led them back into the caves.

~*~*~*~*~

The scrying pools refused to uncloud for the rest of the day and the magistrate reluctantly agreed to return to town the next morning and wait for news. The dragon vanished back into the depths of the caves and didn't return leaving Khany to sit by the pools alone.

There were rules and rituals surrounding everything connected to the dragon and the pools were no exceptions. In theory she should have been able to start her questioning immediately, but the pools hadn't responded and the dragon had simply said 'wait'.

But wait for how long? Or for what?

So Khany sat and stared into the murky waters. They seemed to be in constant movement, even though the surface of the pools were clear. There were fourteen pools within the cavern of various sizes, but the one most used was the largest. She had a feeling it was because it was easiest to see things when there was more room to display them, but there were no stories that covered that.

After spending a few bored hours exploring the room and waiting for something to happen, she dipped a hand into one of the smaller pools, playing with the sediment as it swirled around her fingers.

There was pyrite dust in the water that sparkled as the light from the lanterns caught it and she traced the outline of her old house in the shadows. It took her a moment lost in daydreams to realise the faint ghost of the house stayed behind even as she drew in the pastures and fields behind it.