Keeps person alive

Jodah sat at Jaya’s bedside. She was ghostly pale, and sweat stained the blankets around her. Her hands were tight balls on the white sheets, the muscles of her arms tense. He fought the urge to cast a spell, to send a pulse of healing white mana through her. Until he knew the nature of the disease, using magic could do as much harm as good. The sudden shock of the spell itself might create its own problems.

At the back of his mind, an old memory, now bleached of its emotions, told him that reckless spell casting could only make a disease worse. He had once had a wife with a lingering disease, and he attempted to fight the illness by infusing her with mana. His spells had worked, but he had discovered, to his shock, that she could only survive as long as they were in effect. For five years he was casting spells for that reason and that reason only, and then she fell prey to another disease, one that spread through her entire body, encouraged by the very mana he used to keep her alive.

***

The Shattered Alliance, Chapter 9