As part of my continued desire to better my writing ability, I have taken to using writing prompts to inspire myself. I find them to be an excellent source of inspiration and they help to spark my imagination in ways I may never have experienced without them. Thus, I am able to create short scenes of fiction to help bring to life my ideas. What follows is but one of these shorts: She is the enemy of knowledge

She is the enemy of knowledge

The charmed quill danced across the fresh parchment, taking down the details of the Woman’s dictation. She chose her words carefully and spoke in a direct, informative manner; much like a scout would when reporting enemy movements. She finished speaking and snatched the scroll from beneath the quill, which dabbed its nib neatly on a blotter, before returning itself to a pot on the desk. She held the new report next to the original and read them back in her head. The new report sounded believable enough, but lacked the crucial details of the original, that would allow the emperor to order decisive military action on the frontier. That information, she would keep to herself.

She momentarily admired the accuracy of the forged handwriting and smiled inwardly at her devious penmanship.

“Oh, the joys of calligraphy” she muttered to the cat lounging before the hearth, “In another life, I’d have made an excellent copier.”

She carefully folded the new scroll, following the folds of the original text with pinpoint accuracy; and sealed the edge with a drop of wax from a tall burgundy candle on the dresser. From a drawer beneath the candles, she pulled forth a collection of pewter stamps and selected the seal of Captain Redmarr of the Seventh Rangers, pressing it into the cooling wax. The crisp image of the helmeted raven glistened in the cooled seal, a perfect replica of the broken seal that laid in bits across the desk. The forged report was now complete. The woman took a final look at the original message and gingerly dabbed the drops of dried blood on the parchment, before tossing it into the fire.

She pulled a cord above the desk and a bell rang somewhere in the recesses of the house. The next minute, the door rapped and swung open to reveal a squat orcling in a battered coat and dress shirt.

“M’lady?” he inquired from the door.

“This message needs delivering to the handler at the Bloodened Quag” she ordered, gesturing the carefully prepared note on her desk. “He’ll be an Espial, so we’ll need our best skinchanger to make the drop” she cautioned, “and be careful with the flaying. The messenger resisted so he sustained careless damage to the skin around his neck.” The orcling took notes as the Woman laid out her instructions.

“The handler is likely to be Bertram – the fat one with the scraggly tash” the she said,

“but if they’ve actually rotated their duty roster for once, whoever it is will be sitting on the third stool from the left and have a red flower pinned to his lapel.”

She waited for the orcling’s scrawl to catch up and continued,

“Make sure they carry the message in their left breast pocket and act exhausted. They are supposed to have ridden from the outer territories, so they’d be sore in the saddle and weary from travel.”

The orcling finished his notes and turned to leave, message in hand.

“And no small talk!” Snapped the Woman after him, “I know how Cedric likes to get into character.”

The orcling nodded disapprovingly.

The Woman turned back to the dresser and waved the him away.

The door clicked shut and his hurried footsteps faded.

Confident of her solitude, the Woman carefully replaced the pewter seal in the drawer and reached into the cabinet beneath. With a whisper, a hidden bolt slid back, and the dresser swung forward on silent hinges, revealing a dark passage. In the candlelight cast from the room behind her, rows upon rows of bookshelves came into view and she quickly darted inside and brought the dresser shut behind her.

Inside the dark passage, the Woman lit a lamp and pored through the many volumes on the shelves around her. She settled on one and drew it from its brethren, opening it on the last entry.

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Southern Border Report: 4th Viltrixi 261 AC – Cptn Redmarr

Rebels remain encamped at Baldur’s Glenn.

50 strong: Yeomen and armed peasants mainly. 16 light cavalry. No bowmen. No mages.

Will remain under watch.

———————————————————————————————–

She took the book to a table at the end of the passage and using a regular quill, jotted down the latest report in her records.

———————————————————————————————–

Southern Border Report: 27^th Viltrixi 261 AC – Cptn Redmarr

URGENT

Enemy movement. Forces grown. Split into two factions:

Faction 1 heads north into the Barren Wolds.

150 strong: 80 Yeomen and peasants. 20 light cavalry. 50 bowmen.

Faction 2 heads west toward Southern Pass of Lune. Hostile intent.

100 strong: 20 heavy cavalry. 30 bowmen. ~50 hired soldiers – heavily armed. Some battlemages present – Application unknown.

Request immediate action. Seventh Rangers falling back to Trog’s Fist.

Awaiting orders.

———————————————————————————————–

The Woman knew that the same message would likely have been sent to others closer to the Outer Territories. Captain Redmarr was no fool and had probably reported to the Wassabi League and the Marcher lords of Lune. The full report would not take long to filter back to the Emperor via other methods, but the delay she had caused could provide valuable windows of opportunity if seized. Windows that would be paid for. By the right client.

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This piece took me about half an hour to write and is by far my favourite short so far. The prompt really seemed to speak to me and I was able to simply spin this character and scene into existence. I really like the subtle details of my worldbuilding that I have managed to include in this piece and I feel it really helps to build the intrigue. I think I have managed to create a good deal of suspense which I am quite proud of and I really enjoyed creating the mysterious Woman character. I think my ability to write dialogue is slowly improving and I hoped to get across enough information to provide context in this scene, without giving out flat exposition. The way it reads seems to do this from my perspective, but I would certainly be interested in any feedback from other readers. I did not include the military reports originally, but decided to add them in as I felt it allowed the reader to understand the implications of the Woman’s actions. Perhaps I should have left them out and kept it vague? What do you think?

Thank you for taking the time to read my this short. More will follow shortly.

Any comments or critique would be gladly appreciated.

Until next time, have a great day!

And don’t forget to write!

Jon