The Empath casts a spell which creates a mimic of itself in miniature form which has a ghostly appearance and magical capacity.
The idea is that the Empathic Double is the actual embodiment of what the Empath found of themselves when through enough meditiation and spell research they were able to reach the abyss. The Empath is in touch with themselves in such a way that they can draw from the distant and other-worldly form of itself for convenient aid in their healing ways in Elanthia. The power of accessing the self and piercing through all known barriers which unlearned souls who remain ignorant of the Empathic Spiritual path (even a Priest can only reach an Enlightenment...!) is only possible for the Healer. The Empathic Double will put itself between themselves and whomever the Empath choose to heal and automatically will remove 1 level of the wound before it even reaches the Empath, hence the Path will have a lower level scar and healdown. If the Path is about to die from overhealing (blood loss from a TRANSFER) the Empathic Double will leap forward and place their hands on the Path who is about to die, transferring barely enough life energy to keep them going (1 hp) until they have the chance to catch on to heal or bandage themselves. If the Empath is unable to cast then the Empathic Double will assist with a healing of the Empath just enough for them to begin to get a cast off (say with a command to the ED rather than a mechanical 'sense' by the ED). If the Path is in a state of meditation, the ED will ensure that none can disturb them by doing something to obstruct and get in the way of those who try. A side benefit is that when you feed the ED herbs they will act as a manufacturer of herbal potions! Feed it woth, get a woth tincture. Every so many seconds the ED will TRANSFER a bit of blood or help out with RT on a heal-down by some action. And here's an idea-- if you feed them crystal amulets, you get a HEALTH POTION which gives +25 HP's with 3 sec. RT. (no MIU needed, let's make it nice). If you give the ED your manna bread, they will slather it with honey and give it back which gives it a 50% acceleration on speed and 2x duration for the spell. If you are in RT and there are no paths in the room, they will sense if there is anyone there who will bleed to death and tend them with a spiritual bandage that reduces their blood loss instantly to -1 hp and never allows them to go below +1 hp (maybe those who the Empath designates somehow up to a limited number). If the ED does a Mana Spellup with the Empath then it will include a +5 to all STATS for 600 seconds.

If the Empath leaves the room, the ED goes away. If the Empath engages in battle the ED goes away. The Empath can command the ED to temporarily leave. Whenever the ED returns to the beyond, the aura they had leaves enough traces to become affixed to the magical aura of the Empath thereby granting an Empathic resistance to enemies who will want to cause harm. Much lower level critters will feel a repulsion as if a magnetic phenomenon were driving them back, even causing damage to themselves by redirecting their attack upon themselves. A more like-leved adversary might stop short of a cast or be put into RT for attempting to swing. If they manage to get a successful attack then (get this) then a WARDING/CS vs TD attack can trigger to reverse the damages back to the critter. So say they damage the Empath with a +168 AS vs DS ward using a falchion. The Empath has unpadded doubles on and takes a level 3 wound from a good hit. The hit is transfered entirely and instantly with no mana cost back to the critter (with a reduction in the wound-- if minor only, then they retain the minor). This effect can be triggered often but not nearly every time, say 20% base (let me voice this-- some of the best spells don't trigger often enough, ok?). I mean- this would be intimidating of an Empath to have, like walking armor that if you hit them YOU get the wound.