Josh remembered Professor Thomas as a generally pleasant older gentleman who liked to explore different applications of mana. He would talk for hours on how those with magic shouldn’t be limited to just those few spells where they had talent, and how he wished to be able to try new magic. Testing his ability to use spells was likely exciting to the old professor.

Or maybe not so thrilling. He looked a bit pale watching the ghost-like copy of Josh with its insides glowing in various colors. Josh swiped at the copy-cat’s tail while the two humans were distracted by the magic. “Stop looking so pretty,” he scolded the copy. “I’m more handsome than pretty, understand?”

“What exactly does this spell do?” Morrison asked with a bit of wariness that drew Josh’s attention upward.

Josh watched as Professor Thomas pulled his glasses off his head and cleaned the lenses. The instructor let out a slow breath through his nose and pursed his lips. “It shows areas of the body which are injured. Red areas, like this one here on the paw, indicate something is healing. Black would be an area so severely injured the body can’t heal on its own.” He perched the thin frames on his face properly this time and narrowed his eyes at the image. “If only I had a way to copy it down to paper… it would be easier to track injuries and keep a record.”

Morrison rubbed gently at Josh’s throat. His fingers traced the red he was seeing on the copy-cat, a ghostly line of Josh’s esophagus that looked like he was swallowing blood. “Don’t touch there,” Josh said as he ducked his head. “You’ll catch my collar. I’m not worth strangling! Promise!” Morrison wouldn’t be afraid of strangling small little animals that got in his way. Besides - it hurt!

“What would cause a black injury? Spell damage? Scarring?”

“Spell damage certainly,” Professor Thomas said. “He has some scars that aren’t showing as injuries. Maybe a bone that hasn’t healed right, or a knife would that bleeds faster than it can clot?” He circled the small ghost while tapping his chin. Really, he wasn’t nearly as old as Josh had first thought.

Then the professor poked a finger straight through ghost-Josh’s shoulder - “Hey! That’s rude! I’m not poking your insides!” - and showed Morrison an area that was glowing blue.

“I don’t see any black, but this spot here shows where he’s using mana on himself,” the professor said. “There’s no red or black in the area to show why, though.”

Morrison frowned. “He’s not using that shoulder right now and it’s not injured. On his paw I can see the bone looks bruised, but the bone isn’t glowing there. All the muscles look fine too. Could someone have put magic there?”

Josh’s tail twitched as he looked at the copy-cat and thought things through. On his shoulder? What was that? “Oh, the spell that lets me pass through the wards,” he realized, speaking aloud since no one could understand him anyway. “It’s really hard to do magic like this, especially with the collar.” He nodded decisively. “I’m so smart.”

“He’s an animal, not a person,” Professor Thomas pointed out, completely oblivious to Josh’s revelation. “Any mana flow would be more instinct than thought. That is the shoulder with the scar. Perhaps the injury required assistance to heal and now he sends mana there out of habit?” He lifted his glasses off and set them on his head again, missing one ear and leaving them askew. “His injuries are healing, so I don’t see any reason for him to need medical attention.”

“What about that bone bruise?”

“Its a very faint red. I imagine a few weeks, maybe even a month ago, it was more serious injury. Maybe the start of a stress fracture or the result of a rough fall. Now it’s almost healed.”

Josh’s foster brother had slammed a door and hit Josh’s arm. Josh was pretty sure it was an accident. It barely hurt anymore unless he walked too much or treated it too rough.

“So it happened after we returned from the summer retreat?” Morrison asked with an unhappy edge to his tone.

“Most likely,” Professor Thomas answered. “The estate has been fairly active for the past six months. With the wardstones in place it’s difficult for pests and small animals to enter or exit the premises without human assistance. Madame Rosemary should have record of any animal brought to her for healing, which should make tracking this little one’s owner down fairly simple. One of the stableboys or a farmhand? They like to claim the barn cats to watch over.”

Josh let out a small whine without thinking - surely he was getting too involved and affecting the timeline! - but the two mages looked at the copycat again and not at Josh. Sob! “Stop looking at that thing! Haven’t you looked enough! I’ll never get married with all my inside bits on display!”

“Was he abused?” Morrison asked.

“It’s difficult to say definitively, but with the collar and these injuries there aren’t many other possible conclusions. That is an invisibility artifact, after all. I doubt it was procured with the Duke’s approval.” His face looked sad. “I wish I could say it was rare. It certainly is for your estate! But in the rest of the world? Small animals are the easiest victims.”

Josh whined again. “Don’t look so sad, professor! You should smile more. You’d look pretty.”

Morrison pulled Josh away from the copycat and set him firmly on Morrison’s lap. “I think he’s hungry. His stomach is glowing red. Perhaps I should take him to the kitchens for a meal before going to the vet.”

Josh’s face went bright red. Morrison was right, but that wasn’t something someone should just say! Oh, oh, oh! He was just going to die of embarrassment!

“Don’t be silly, Kit, the guards are already bringing a meal here!” Professor Thomas canceled the spell and sat in the other chair, pulling out a notebook from somewhere and making notes. “I’ll need to write down all the nuances of that spell. Since it wasn’t originally used on animals I should document everything that happened. Once you feed him we can try again and see if there are any changes in the results. We’ll need to feed him slowly and by hand. Otherwise that stomach issue might get worse.”