Anael awoke to a sharp pain in her chest and a general sense of soreness.  She groggily opened her eyes and noticed that her shirt and vest seemed to be wet with something.  That was odd because the rest of her was quite dry and when she moved her arm up to feel her shirt, it felt warm and sticky.  She brought her hand closer to her face and saw that it was covered in red.  That was when she screamed.  To be fair calling it a scream was a bit of a stretch.  It came out odd and stopped as quickly as it started.  She remembered finding her home in flames and being stabbed, but how could she still be alive?  Was she still alive? Was this the afterlife? Surely not…  She slowly struggled to sit up and barely managed it, almost immediately regretting the action.  As she looked around it seemed that the soldier who stabbed her had already left.  In fact, they must have all left, otherwise they would have heard her scream-moan-gurgle and come back to finish the job.  In other… good? … news, it seemed that the sword had hit the center of her chest at an angle.  The good part was that it had missed her heart and the largest of her arteries and veins.  The bad part was that there was still a good bit of blood seeping out of her, and there would probably be a lot more if her shirt and vest weren’t there.  Her clothes seemed to have slowed the bleeding a little bit, but it wasn’t enough.  In addition, the blade seemed to have punctured, or at least nicked, her right lung.  It wasn’t full of blood yet by any means, but there was definitely some in there, and between that and the blood loss, there was no way she had more than a few hours before she passed out again.  Once that happened she’d die soon after.

Anael slowly reached for the bottle of healing salve she always carried and realized it had been shattered at some point, probably when she fell.  Not one to be dissuaded by that, she grabbed what she could and tried to spread it on her wound.  There’s no way this will keep me alive, she thought. Even if it slows the bleeding enough, I’ve already lost a good bit of blood and there’s more flowing into my lung every minute.  She could draw a healing sigil but her only magic crystal was almost empty.  Besides, even when it’s full it can only heal scrapes and minor cuts.  It seemed she was going to die here.  Not as if there’s anything I can do…  Might as well try the sigil I suppose,  maybe I’ll last long enough for help to arrive… Maybe someone has seen the smoke.  Anael looked up at the sky, sighed, and then immediately wished she hadn’t.  That hurt quite a bit.  I’m being far too optimistic.  There’s no way anyone will get here in time to save me.  The likelihood of a trained healer being close enough and not having been killed by those soldiers is so low, I’d be better off praying to the aspects for a miracle.  Nonetheless, Anael reached into her pocket for some paper to draw the sigil on.  At least I can put my hard earned knowledge to use, even if it’s for naught.  She pulled the paper out and then realized that this wasn’t going to work, after all.  Oh wonderful, it’s covered in blood.  I can’t even spend my last moments performing magic, instead I get to sit here coughing up blood and waiting to die.  And that was what she did, at least for a few minutes.

Anael thought back over her life, remembering her family and the various townspeople who had helped or befriended her throughout her 19 years of life.  Mom, I’ll be joining you soon, and Dad’s probably already there with you. She had recognized the ring on the hand in the fire as belonging to her father, confirming that he was definitely dead.  I hope Harvin and Mel are alright, but I suppose I’ll find out soon enough.  Same with Kelara, thank you for teaching me about alchemy and herbs, it was so much fun and it saved my ass so many times when I was out hunting.  Harvin, thanks for teaching me to hunt by the way.  Dad, thank’s for your lessons in the forge,  I never was able to keep up, but you always complimented the things I managed to make.  Gilian, I know you always payed more than the hides I brought you were worth and if it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have been able to buy that book of sigils.  And Zilfa, you’re probably alive and well since you won’t be coming to town for another week.  Well you wouldn’t be, but I guess now you won’t be coming here anymore, will you? Not much town left to come to.  In any case, thank you for teaching me about magic.  Most mages barely deign to speak to a non-mage like me, much less teach them.  And yet you taught me simply in exchange for a few basic potions that you probably didn’t even need.  I’ll always remember the day you taught me about the different types of energy and how… - Anael paused in her thoughts - wait a second, that might work.  Sorry Zilfa, I know I promised you I’d never try to power a sigil with my own mana, much less my life energy, but that was because it would have killed me.  Considering the fact that I’m going to die soon regardless, I hope you’ll forgive me.  It’s really the only thing that has any chance of working, and that’s only because it’s a healing sigil and trying to heal me should create a feedback loop which will force it to only consume excess and refill any essential mana that is taken, but that is only if the overall structure implies … - Anael’s thought process trailed off as she considered the details and whether it had any chance of actually prolonging her life, or whether it would simply kill her faster.  If she had the right materials, she would definitely try it anyway, but considering that she had no sigiler’s paper that wasn’t ruined, there was only one mana conductive medium available to her, and she wasn’t certain if this small chance was worth the cost.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Anael pulled the knife she had received for her 19th birthday, only a week ago, out of its sheath at her waist, and placed its blade amongst a pile of nearby embers that seemed the hottest, since they were mostly enclosed by other pieces of still burning wood.  No sense doing this if it’ll make me lose any more blood, then it has no chance of working. Once the blade seemed hot enough, Anael grasped the handle and brought the knife over towards her wounded chest.  With her other hand, she pulled out her meager mana crystal and placed it in her wound. I like to think I have a high tolerance for pain, but this might be pushing it a little.  Maybe I should just give up.  I mean it probably won’t even work. Is this really worth it?  Anael used her free hand to grab part of her leather vest and put it in her mouth, biting down. No, it’s definitely worth it.  If this gives me the slightest chance to live long enough to get revenge on the bastards that did this then it’s worth it.  I’m gonna fucking rip those sons of whores limb from fucking limb, I’m gonna fucking cut their fucking eyes out.  I’m - She took a breath through her nose  - I’m gonna stay calm and do this and then, If I’m still alive tomorrow, THEN I’m gonna get angry. Anael inhaled quickly, pressed the red hot knife to her wounded chest, and then, despite the blood in her lung, she let out what most definitely qualified as a scream.

At least several minutes had passed, not including however much time went by when Anael passed out halfway through.  It felt like days, or at least hours, but judging by the amount of blood in her lung, it couldn’t have been more than half an hour or maybe forty minutes at the absolute most.  There.  That’s it.  Assuming I haven’t made a mistake, that’s a complete basic healing sigil.  I even managed to get the collection array so that it can bring in ambient mana from the air, not that it will be enough to heal me all the way, but it might be enough extra to stop this thing from drinking my all my life force and mana.  She paused, took as deep a breath as she could, coughed up some blood, took another breath (slightly less deep this time) and activated the sigil.  Anael could feel her mana and her very life slowly draining into the mana crystal she’d embedded in her chest, but she could also feel the wound scabbing over and closing ever so slowly.  If it can just stop the bleeding in my lung without killing me, that might be enough.  I guess I’ll find out if I wake up after this.  Anael let the pain and exhaustion finally sweep over her and everything once more faded to black.