After checking her bandages once more, I decide to check on her every hour and went to the study. There might be something in here that will either directly help me heal her or will give me a way to at least prevent her from dying. The study is the size of a bedroom. the wall opposite the door has rows of bookshelves all up and down it. These are made up of books that my mother gathered or wrote herself. Because both she and I have a death affinity there is not much written that we can study. Any text or research that the Order finds they take or destroy depending on the circumstances. Because of this much of what is on the shelves is either fields related to the death affinity or stuff that complements it. All the rest is the journals that my mother wrote to organize her research.
After a few hours had passed I still couldn't find something that I could use to help her. I found a spell to stop a corpse's internal bleeding in a journal on how to preserve a corpse. The only problem with the spell is it stops blood flow entirely. One piece of good news is that it had a description on how to use your will to better scan things. This helped me to confirm that most of her body was subjected to a great amount of trauma and that caused her to have internal bleeding. Another book helped me to deduce that she has only a day or two left before she dies. That is a piece of bad news.
After cleaning her bandages once more and putting some more rags on to boil, I head back down to the study. As I was skimming through a book called 'Familiars and You' I had an idea. In the book there are a few beginner spells that are meant to cultivate your familiar's power. One interesting fact is that I learned that all creatures both sentient and not have six body slots. The only impact on the slots a nonhumanoid has is the location and what the cards affect. Later on, there are two spells that may help me to help her. The spells are slot sight and forced slotting. Slot sight allows someone to view their familiar's slots and because of how it is described I do not see any reason for me not to be able to see the woman's. One warning for this spell is not to use it on creatures not bound to you because they can resist it and if they do you will experience severe backlash.
The spell should go off without a hitch because she is severely wounded and in a coma. The other spell forced slotting is the one I will be counting on. It does exactly what it is named for, forcefully slotting a card. Also, just like slot sight there seems to be no restrictions to what I could use it on. The biggest difference is that the backlash could destroy the card and crack my core cards, not just give me a massive headache. The morality of doing this is questionable but I am trying to save her life. She can live with a suboptimal card as long as she lives. The least she can do for invading my home with someone else is accept what I do to save her right? Looking at the sand hourglass I had been using I decide that if I am going to do this I should start now.
Originally if I hadn't been forced to rush to save her life, I could have used the random card creation method to create a lot of cards to study. Using what similarities and differences I find in the different cards I would be able to find what patterns of weaves make what. This would allow me to influence the random method to create a random category of card. For example, if I found a common weave in item cards, I could make that weave and fill out the rest with pure essence until it stabilizes into a random item card. From there I could focus on each category and repeat the process till I can weave new cards without relying on the random method. The problem is that process could take years and if I want to save her, I can't do that. So instead, I must get really lucky in order to save her.
Sighing, I get to it. One benefit of my trait I am beginning to notice is how after a while it speeds up my essence recovery. That seems to be a side effect of releasing my essence into the surroundings constantly. Because I am surrounded by essence my core has processed, my core can just take in the already processed essence and quickly refill itself. This will be very helpful for creating cards. With that thought out of the way I start. First, I grab my staff from where I leaned it against the wall and stand in the center of the room. I don't want to damage the books if the card creation fails.
Just like last time I grab a thread of essence from my core and start winding it into a ball. Unlike last time it goes much smoother as if my will is being focused. Ignoring the possible distractions that comes with that line of thought, I redouble my focus. After a while of winding, I finally get it to the size I want. This time I am making it a bit bigger in order to stuff more essence into the card. With it finally where I want it my will comes crashing down on it, crushing it as small as it will go. Just like last time I have to wait for the essence to condense into a card. After what feels like hours of focusing on crushing the essence, the last little bit finally stabilizes.
This time I do not drop it but instead catch it. Feeling a bit of satisfaction that I have successfully created another card, I examine it. This time illustration on the card is a dead tree. The biggest difference between it and a normal tree is the corpses littered underneath its roots. The name of this card is quite appropriate,
[Grave Tree (Common)]
[Type: Structure]
This was not what I expected. Now that I think about it, I have a Necropolis as a core card so it would make sense that I could get a dead tree. The only problem is that this won't help me. Time to try again. Once more I started to gather the essence needed to create a random card. Everything was going smoothly until the card was about to stabilize. So, there I am a ball of energy glowing a sickly green and next thing I know I am laying on the floor with a massive headache. Blinking the spots out of my eyes, I try to figure out what just happened. I remember I made the essence ball bigger than before, then my concentration slipped forming a hole in my will.
Flopping back on to the floor, I sigh. When my will covered the essence, I was able to keep it in check. But as soon as a hole formed the essence probably blasted out in the direction the hole faced. And unfortunately, that direction was through me. Groaning I chuckle, at least I now know how much essence is too much essence. As I push up off the ground, I look for my staff. After grabbing it from where it is a few feet from me, I try again. This time I wrap the essence threads to the size I did for the second card. Three turns of the hourglass later, I am looking at two cards.
[Undead Domination (Common)]
[ Type: Active Slot]
Even though this card will become extremely useful later it is not what I need. After creating this card, it took me getting thrown around the room several more times before I made the fourth card.
[Undead Constitution (Rarity: Uncommon)]
[Type: Passive Slot]
Now this card is closer to what I need. Also, it is one of the few cards that I have found described in my mother's notes. According to the notes all undead creatures have this as a trait. My mother had tried countless times to copy the effects of this onto a card that she could study but it never worked. Now I know the reason why. The answer is in the name. Apparently, you need undeath essence to make it. Thankfully the notes have a description of what the trait does. The effects of this card will save her if I use it. The problem is I don't know at what cost.
As I head upstairs, I hear a slight crumpling sound from my pocket. My eyes widen as I realize what it is. Taking the letter out of my pocket I look at it. All the running around has not done it any favors. Even though I folded it before I put it in my pockets, it has gotten ripped instead. Looking back down the stairs, I sigh. Decided I check on the woman once more before going back down to make a card blank. It shouldn't take too long. it is literally just copying the simplest weave that makes up the cards and making a blank out of it. A little while later I am sitting at my mother's desk looking at two cards. Unfortunately, the uncommon card's card weave is too complicated for me to be able to make in a short amount of time. I also need to make more uncommon cards to make sure that I am using the right weave.
Sighing, I get back to studying the weave of the two common cards. The weave is quite simple, it is a triple lined hashtag where the bottom middle and right middle go under the thread underneath it. I just repeat this pattern a few times to make a large rectangle and then pull it tight and merge the essence on the edges together. In practice it seems simple, but it is not. It took me an hour of trying to hold six essence threads at once and failing to look at the pattern again. It was at that point that I realized what I was doing wrong. The pattern is not many different strings but just two wound into that pattern. With that in mind I managed to finish it an hour later. All in all, it took me two hours to finish it. Laying the letter out flat, I placed the card blank over it and willed it to absorb the letter.
[Final letter(Mundane)]
With that I leaned back in the chair and relaxed. After a minute my eyes shot open. Shoot! The woman! With that I ran back upstairs.