The woman looked at the groaning man on the stretcher and sighed. His eyes shut and his teeth clenched tightly in pain, anyone could see that he wouldn’t last the night. His entire torso was covered in bloody bandages hastily put together. She could see blood seeping through from the open gashes beneath them.

“How pathetic,” she tsk-tsked.

Whoever his healer was lacked skill; such a person in her retinue would have been severely punished for complete incompetence. The world has been mostly at peace since the Rift War but inevitably mortals love to fight over inconsequential things – in this case, a small patch of mountainous territory that was supposed to have a treasure trove of gold. She didn’t mind of course. Without war or the other big one -- disease, she would be utterly insignificant compared to the others. Wars tend to be good at propagating the latter as well.

She fought to stave off a bubbling chuckle. She found it ironic that the Goddess of Healing would be so thankful to the God of War. Maybe she would find a nice gift for Thuro later. Maybe a bigger hammer if she can convince some demigod craftsman to do it.

She suddenly heard the man speak. The Exicozan language was rather guttural to start with but his parched throat lent his words even more so. Knowing that his words were not understood, he cleared his throat before trying again. The second time was still more of a gasp than completely coherent speech but she understood him. “Healer, am I going to die?”

She hesitated for a moment on whether she should answer his question. He spoke again. “Healer, please tell me.”

To stop his incessant yapping, she answered with the obvious. “Yes, I wish I could tell you differently but you’re soon going to be another casualty of a pointless war.”

The man grimaced and managed to open his eyes with great effort. He squinted and asked with surprise. “Who are you? You’re not Healer Cara.”

“Oh? That’s the name of the healer who committed this atrocity on you?”

“No, this wound was from a lancer who charged straight at me. I tried to dodge but I wasn’t fast enough.”

From the exertion of speaking so many words at once, he coughed weakly. She shook her head in pity. “I was joking. This botched attempt to save your life have done nothing.”

She added after a brief pause. “Not that you could have been saved by any mortal to start with.”

He started to speak again but she pushed her finger against his lips to silence him. “Save your breath. Your time on this world is drawing to a close. To answer your inquiry, you mortals know me as Mara, the Goddess of Healing.”

He unclenched his teeth and gaped. “Mara? But how and why me?”

Mara chuckled. “Are you seriously going to ask how? We’re not bound to the limits of travel as you mortals are. As far as why you, are you considering that I chose you since you’re special?”

He strained and opened his eyes wider with surprise. “I am?”

“No, you’re not. To the kingdom, you’re just another body count in a border skirmish.”

His eyes grew wide. With some effort, he took his right hand and placed it over his chest as a honorary salute. “My name is Robert Riane and I have served for over a decade as a knight of the Kingdom of Raraya. Have I not done enough to be saved?”

Another witless dolt, Mara thought. The goddess sighed. “Why do you mortals always think that it’s my role to save you? Your king decided to start this pointless endeavor and out of some foolish patriotism, you gladly enlisted. I’m afraid I don’t see the point of saving you.”

The man was about to reply with more attempts at sound noble but ended up in a coughing fit. She gave him a look of pity and waited for him to explain. Finally, he gasped out. “It was for a noble cause.”

“I’m not sure if that was sarcasm.”

The man proceeded to explain further as if Mara would actually care. She didn’t. “The Czitus and the Osetan needed to be stopped. Their trade flourished while ours atrophied. We’re an inland kingdom and we needed the mines more than them. That damn Yuano.”

“Now you’re cursing a god? Are you not afraid that he will come here and end you right now? Also, do I need to remind you that he and I were on the same side in the Rift War?”

The man shuddered from fear. Pathetic, she thought. Here was a man about to die and yet he was still afraid of death. Besides, she was a healer. Seeing the ease that some of her fellow gods removed the existence of mortals, Mara wondered what she would do if she was allowed to kill. She put that thought aside. It was out of the question since that was one of the absolute limitations of her power – she could not physically kill or wound anyone.

That doesn’t mean she couldn’t take advantage of those who were already dying. Tired of hearing his foolishness, she wanted to end this conversation. “No, you don’t need to wait for Yuano. I see that those Czitus have done the deed of their god here. Any last words?”

“Last words? I thought that was the task for one of the Reapers of the God of Death.”

“Are you not glad that I’m here before them? This way your soul will actually have some use.”

He stuttered in surprise and a tinge of fear. “What … what do you mean? The underworld awaits me.”

Mara relished this moment and realized that she was sadistic to a degree. Though she couldn’t kill a mortal physically, in a way, some would consider this worse. “What makes you think that your soul is eternal?”

He managed to utter a sentence in between coughs. “Every child knows the underworld awaits all mortals before being judged and reborn.”

She shook her head. “Reborn? Hmm, maybe your faith has gotten a few things wrong after all. No matter. Whether you’re reborn or simply put into a place for eternity, neither would happen for you. You know maybe you’re right in that you are special.”

The man’s eyes opened wide. “What? But…”

It was long past time for him to stop talking. She cut him off with just one word in the Divine Tongue. “Silence.”

Casting the spell was easy. The man tried to speak but no sound came out of his vocal cords. His eyes widened and he squirmed his body as if he stood any chance of escaping. Without further fanfare, the goddess reached out her hand and pulled.

He was already in pain but this pain must be excruciating for she was him screaming. The Silence spell worked wonderfully well so it was all in silence. His soul struggled to stay in his body but its connection to the physical self was already tenuous due to his injuries. With barely any resistance, his soul left his body.

To any ordinary mortal, they would see a woman holding up at her eye level absolutely nothing in her hands. A mage might detect a faint tinge of ether usage but nothing more than that. Mara, though, could see the shimmering orb that was the man’s soul quite clearly. She opened her mouth and stuffed the orb into her mouth. She swallowed. There was a pleasant sensation as dissolved within her. The man’s soul was weak and she barely felt any increase in her ether.

A disappointment but she was not done. The healer’s tent was not that large but it was sufficient. She looked at the twenty remaining mortals laying on makeshift beds and stretchers noting that all except two were mortally wounded. She could never take someone’s life who was not already near death. “Eighteen is enough for now.”

She pondered on who to approach first which depended on who was to expire first. Before she was able to make a decision, a shadowy figure clothed in a dark hooded robe suddenly materialized in front of her next to the man that was just passed. The entity was almost invisible to look at even with her eyes. The God of Death really took some time making these guys, Mara thought.

This arrival was entirely expected. A low masculine voice spoke, pointing out the obvious. “You have taken what does not belong to you.”

Mara sighed as she anticipated the usual trite conversation. “Right, I understand. You’re supposed to take him to your lord Dartho.”

“All souls who pass must undergo judgment and be sent to their rightful place. You have interfered with the natural cycle.”

As usual, she would have to break it down for another one of these numbskulls. “All right. So I did. I find this whole concept of a mortal soul dwelling somewhere in near eternity to be a rather grim fate. I simply saved him from either an eternity of boredom or an eternity of torture. I think absorbing him to increase my energy so that I can heal those who actually matter makes much more sense to me.”

“It is not your place to decide the fate of those who pass. I am obliged to report to my lord your transgressions which now tallies 300789 souls.”

“And despite all that, your lord has done absolutely nothing to stop me.”

The Reaper chuckled. It was a very unpleasant sound as if numerous nails were scrapped against a chalkboard in a mockery of a symphony. “Rest assured, Goddess of Healing. There is a threshold even for you. You do know what happened to that other goddess.”

Mara glowered. “Was that a threat? I am no naïve new goddess.”

“That is something which if you do not stop, you will assuredly find out. Do you plan to absorb the others here as well?”

“I do.”

“Very well. I will not stop you.”

“You mean you can’t stop me. Your kind are only demigods.”

She was hoping for a reaction but she didn’t get any. Several decades ago, she was in a particularly bad mood and managed to stir up one of them enough that the particular Reaper who interrupted her actually attacked her. Needless to say, it did not end well for that demigod. This time seemed like the more usual tense but ultimately peaceful meet and greet.

The Reaper ignored her jibe and bowed. “I bid you farewell, Goddess of Healing.”

Mara didn’t bother the courtesy to reciprocate the farewell. He was the one who rudely intruded here knowing beforehand that the only result would be the inevitable trite exchange of words. She knew that she was rather well-known to the God of Death and his minions.

He vanished as quickly as he had arrived. She returned to the survey of the scene of the wounded in front of her. She would need to hurry before they all passed. She approached a bed where an unconscious young woman laid. The soldier was still attired in her armor with a grievous wound on her head. The woman’s cranium was notably indented. It was a miracle that this woman was still alive. She smiled with the thought that this one definitely won’t wake up to start an inane conversation.