“Captain!” Edwin called as they approached the wounded, waving the officer over. Vellis looked up from his conversation with two of his bannermen, a hint of a frown flashing across his face at being called like that, but he nodded to his men and walked over to meet them.

“Salissa has agreed to try and stabilize your two critically wounded.” Edwin said without preamble.

Vellis stopped in his tracks, looking at the mage with confusion plain on his face. “I thought she didn’t know how?”

“She doesn’t, but I can guide her through it. It might not work at all, or it might make it worse. It might also save their lives. She’s agreed to try, but as it is uncertain, we won’t do anything without your consent.”

“How… What do you have to do with this?” The captain asked, obviously perplexed.

“I could explain, but every moment we stand here talking the chances of your men get worse. You either trust us and let her try and we might fail regardless, or you tell us no and hope that they make it on their own.”

“Who are you?” Vellis said, eyes narrowing at Edwin.

“I’m Edwin.” Edwin said, face impassive. “And this is Salissa, the only mage within a day’s travel. Do you want our help or not?”

Captain Vellis regarded him for a few seconds, then whirled around and stomped off towards the wounded. Most of them were sitting up or laying down, covered in bandages, but the two critical ones were surrounded by their worried comrades.

“How are they?” Vellis asked.

“Bad.” Bannerman Haskin answered. “We plugged everything up, but Orsen is bleeding internally. Paril might be too, but I can’t quite tell. We definitely can’t move them, and I don’t think they’ll make it even if we don’t. They have a day, at most.”

Vellis knelt down, inspecting the two men. He checked their bandages, Orsen’s were slowly coloring red, felt their foreheads and listened to their breaths. Both of their injuries were on their legs, as were most of the others’. The size of the goblins meant that for them, anything above the hip was hard to reach, and unlike the soldiers’ legs their torsos were very well-protected. Sadly, the leg held some of the largest arteries in the human body, and an injury there could mean an even more certain death than a wound in the chest or stomach.

Finally, Vellis got up and turned to Edwin and Salissa.

“Fine. You go ahead and try. Men, make some room, she will try to heal them with magic.”

The crowd retreated from the two injured, only to form a circle around them and the adventurers. Edwin confidently stepped between the two patients, waving Salissa to kneel down next to him.

“Alright, so here’s what we’re going to do.”

He spoke quietly, just loud enough that Salissa could understand him clearly. The bystanders could probably make out most of what he was saying, but he didn’t care.

“Healing is an incredibly wide and complex field, and we don’t need any of it. There is just a single thing you can do in this situation. You could almost call it a trick. It’s something every mage gets taught once they have enough control, because being able to do basic first aid is something anyone might need.”

He paused to gather his thoughts, then continued.

“Human bodies, like all bodies of living creatures, are incredibly complex and complicated things. I could talk for hours about all the wonders that are hidden inside this unassuming package, but only one thing is relevant now. I’m sure you’ve hurt yourself before, or you got sick. When that happened, your body didn’t need you to do anything. It fixed itself over time. Wounds closed, illnesses got better, and in the end you were fine again.”

“With healing magic, a mage can target the wound he wants to heal and direct his magic to close it, to connect severed tissue and grow it anew where it is missing. You can’t. What you can do is help the body with what it’s trying to do anyway. It wants to close the wound and stem the bleeding, it just can’t. So you will help it by giving it mana.”

“That’s it?” Salissa asked. “Just give them mana?”

Her hands were balled to fists, trying and failing to hide her shaking.

“It’s a little more complicated than that, but yes. The problem is that the human body isn’t built to operate on mana. All living things contain it, even now the minute traces of mana inside this man’s body are helping his recovery ever so slightly. Give him a little more, and give it direction, and he will heal faster. Give him too much and his body will go crazy, organs failing and arteries bursting.”

Salissa turned to Edwin in horror, and he gave her a reassuring smile.

“That’s why I said that you being low on mana is a good thing: Even if you pumped all that you have into him, he wouldn’t be much worse off. The only problem we have now is to get what mana you have in the right location. His body needs to use the extra energy to fix his bleeding, not any of the other problems he has, or do any of the other million things it might use it for. That’s why you need to direct it.”

“How do I do that?”

“First, as with all magical healing, you need to get past his aura. That means getting past his skin. Healers carry a ring with a magesilver needle that allows them to bypass the skin easily and from anywhere. We don’t have one, and we need to get as close to the injury as possible anyway, so you take the easy but messy way in.”

She looked at him, stressed and confused, and he nodded at the bloody bandage.

“You stick your hand into his leg, that puts you right where you need to be. Then, all you have to do is pull some mana from your core, imbue it with the mandate to heal, and direct it into the wound. I’ll press it shut while you slowly pull your hand out, so it hopefully reattaches and closes. You do your best not to pass out and we repeat the procedure on the other one.”

“I… I don’t think I can do this Edwin.” Salissa said with a small voice, looking down at her legs.

“I know you can, Salissa. You’ve done harder things. Compared to how quickly you picked up telekinesis and shields, this will be nothing. Two minutes of fighting, Salissa, two minutes and you’re done.”

She kept looking down, slowly shaking her head.

“Look at him.” Edwin said, putting a hand below her chin and gently raising her face so that she looked at the unconscious soldier. “This man’s name is Orsen. Now, you can give up on Orsen, or you can do your best, bite through the pain and save his life.”

For a few seconds, Salissa just stared at the soldier. He was a fresh-faced recruit, probably even younger than she was, although his ashen complexion made it hard to tell.

“Fine.” She whispered finally.

“Alright.” Edwin said, moving to the soldier’s leg. “The bandage is preventing most of the bleeding, so once I take it off, we need to move quickly. Hold your hand over it and close your eyes. Take half of your mana and gather it, then imprint your will to heal on it. I will guide your hand in, and when I tell you, push it out through your hand. Keep a connection to it and keep ordering it to heal, even once it is outside of your body. I will tell you to stop. Got it?”

“There’s nothing left.” Salissa said with her eyes closed, her voice shaking. “My core is empty. I don’t have enough.”

“Your core is never empty, Salissa. You just need to pull harder. The density in your core is low, so mana wants to go in, not out. You’re its master, Salissa. You command it and it will obey.”

While Edwin was quietly speaking to the mage, he leaned back, scanning the crowd. Most of the soldiers had joined the circle, watching the two of them with worried faces. He spotted Leodin and waved him over.

“Now don’t be surprised, you will feel something. That’s just Leodin, helping to hold you up. Concentrate on the mana and tell me when you’re ready.”

After a few seconds, the color started to drain from Salissa’s face and she began to sway slightly. Leodin braced her, keeping her from falling over.

“I’m ready.” She whispered.

“Alright, remember to focus on healing, and keep your grip on the mana until I tell you to stop.”

As he was talking, Edwin cut open the bandage with his dagger, exposing the leg wound. Immediately, blood began to well out. Without hesitation he stuck in his hand, feeling around the tear. Building a body from the ground up had required Walter to learn quite a lot about how it worked and what went where, so he quickly found the area that needed fixing. He pulled his hand out again and grabbed Salissa’s, guiding it into the wound. Her eyes were still closed, but she shivered when her fingers plunged into the bloody gash.

“Now push it out slowly but keep your grip on it and keep telling it to heal.”

Edwin counted down a few seconds in his mind, then he slowly pulled out her hand while pinching the wound closed with the other. Too late did he realize that he needed to move, so he called over one of the soldiers and directed him to take over.

“Very good Salissa, you’re almost done, just one more and you’re through.”

“I… don’t think I can…”

She wasn’t looking good. Her head was lolling about on her neck, and only Leodin kept the rest of her body upright. Edwin rose, picking her up as if she was weightless and turned her around to the other patient.

“Sure you can, you’re just a little tired.” Edwin said soothingly. “Once you’re done you can sleep all you want. Now ready your mana, I’ll tell you when.”

“I… can’t…” Salissa moaned. Edwin studied her critically. The mana drain was hitting her so hard, she was barely conscious. He had reached the limits of what she could accomplish through nice words and encouragement. Edwin sighed.

“STOP WHINING!” He roared into her ear, her eyes shooting open as she jerked wide awake.

“THIS MAN IS FUCKING DYING AND YOU’RE MOANING ABOUT BEING TIRED?! STOP BEHAVING LIKE A SPOILED CHILD, SALISSA!”

She was looking at him in horror, as was everyone around them, but he didn’t care.

“ARE YOU A MAGE OR ARE YOU A FAILURE? IF YOU DON’T CONTROL YOUR MAGIC YOU’RE NO BETTER THAN A MUNDANE! YOUR CORE! ISN’T! EMPTY! NOW PULL OUT YOUR MANA AND COMMAND IT TO HEAL!”

Edwin ripped the bandage in two with a twist of his hands and pushed Salissa’s hand into the wound. He only had seconds before the adrenaline would wear off and her body would remember that it was shutting down, so there was no time for precision.

“NOW PUSH, GODS DAMN IT!”

Still looking horrified, Salissa closed her eyes in concentration. Edwin watched as her already bloodless face turned bone-white, and he pulled her hand out of the wound just as she sagged down. Bannerman Haskin was already sitting next to him, ready to clamp the wound shut as soon as they were done. Edwin wiped his bloody hand off on his clothes, then carefully lifted the unconscious Salissa into his arms and strode away, the circle of gawkers parting to let him through.

“What the hell was that?” Captain Vellis asked as he hurried after Edwin. He looked disturbed.

“That, my dear captain, was Salissa saving the lives of your two men.” Edwin said calmly. “You can thank her once she wakes up, although that will be a while. It’s a really bad idea to try doing magic with an empty core.”

“I thought you said her core wasn’t empty.”

“I lied. Well, I suppose I didn’t technically lie, but that doesn’t change the fact that she’ll be out for at least half a day, at which point she’ll wake up with the mother of all headaches.”

They arrived back at the spot where Salissa had sat before, and Edwin carefully lowered her into the soft grass, folding her cloak and stuffing it under her head. Vellis was regarding him with a mixed expression.

“The words you are looking for are ‘thank you’, captain, and you can tell them to her yourself once she’s awake.”

With that, Edwin sat down next to the unconscious mage, his back to the officer. Vellis stood there for a few more seconds until he finally turned around and walked back to his men. Leodin and Bordan, who had trailed behind, sat down next to Edwin.

“Will she be alright?” Leodin asked, looking at Salissa’s drained face.

“Oh, definitely.” Edwin reassured him. “She’ll be just fine – physically, that is. She will also be absolutely miserable and probably hate me for a few days.”