Zara shook her head as she walked away from the fourth were to hit on her in the past ten minutes. These damn horn dogs were starting to get real annoying, and she was glad she hadn't read any of their emotions. She might have punched one of them.

The backyard of the spacious home was full of weres, and a few others types of paras. She spotted a demon, some half-mages, and even a few elves. The orc guards she’d brought were close by and every now and then they’d look her way to make sure she was fine. Nadia was closest, but Zara didn't think anything would happen to her. The weres who kept hitting on her? Well, that was another matter. This was a party being thrown by the Alpha of Anna’s pack, and she was here to examine both he and his son.

She walked over and leaned up against a table full of drinks and some snacks as people chatted and walked past. A few looked like they were about to walk over so she pulled out her phone as though she was receiving a call. She’d had enough of that for a day. One of the were’s had even ignored the fact she’d said she was seeing someone, and she’d been close to smacking him. Oh, so close, but Anna had interceded and pulled the were away.

She took a deep breath and continued speaking to create the illusion she was on the phone, but in truth, she was expanding her senses. Her eyes flicked about, and it took only a minute to find her first target. The alpha’s son, Jacob. Then she was locked in. He was speaking with an older were and both were laughing, beer bottles in hand.

She began by weaving together a simple detection spell, a simple string, and needle type. With practiced ease and delicate control, the needle pierced his mind and she began to look it over. There were many different types of detection spells for all sorts of situations from mass detection using a wave of mana or a more subtle approach, like the thread and needle. She'd learned it from The Arcane Vault. It was part of an adept course in understanding and sensing mana and active spells.

At first, she sensed nothing out of the ordinary, no mana or other form of energy. Zara didn't just check his mind, but moved through his whole body, focusing on certain areas that would be best for a control or mental spell. You didn't need to anchor the spell to a person's mind and there were other ways of control.

She knew a blood mage who could pacify a person using a simple on-the-fly ritual and similar technique to the needle and thread though he'd called it a blood weave.

Twice she went over his entire body, but she couldn't find anything. That didn't mean there wasn’t anything there. There were many ways to hide a spell or enchantment and she wasn't so arrogant as to think she was some superpower of a practitioner. Someone more skilled or utilizing a mix of magic energies could trick her. She was relatively young in terms of power and skill, though far greater than any half-mage.

But her mana was not her only tool. She focused on her gift and this time she did spot something. Almost immediately, she noted an odd pattern to his emotions. Like a beep, every so often a spark of confusion would occur but like a candle being snuffed out, it would vanish. It might have just been natural but as she kept her senses keen, it happened again and again. Like clockwork.

She sighed. Whatever was occurring with him, its source wasn’t emotion-based. His emotions seemed fairly normal, only the confusion and what seemed like a deep feeling of nervousness were odd. Except she couldn't link that nervousness to anything. There was no accompanying emotion with it. No fear, anxiety, or excitement.

There was clearly something going on here and she needed to dig deeper. She looked down as she continued to pretend she was on the phone, her expression shifting every once in a while. It was rude, but she didn’t care all that much. Better this than being hit on constantly. Zara understood her appeal. She had inherited her mother's beauty and you didn’t see elves like her, not from one of the desert courts.

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Her empathic gift was not mana based and unlike her mana which was a well of energy, her gift was more akin to stamina, a muscle she’d had to train and when pushed would cause her to tire. And just like her normal muscles, she could enhance it with magic.

It was something she rarely ever did. Ever since high school, every once in a while there would come a period of stress and it all led back to one thing.

When she enhanced her gift her abilities for emotion manipulation skyrocketed. Everything improved but it was her ability to affect other emotions which truly shine greater. Zara wasn’t yet skilled enough to improve only one aspect of her gift. She was annoyed her magic seemed to be pushing her in one direction.

Zara liked helping people and when you walked past a single mother and knew deep down that you could help her, it was hard not to. But she also knew it was wrong to mess with people's emotions. She'd been taught that by her grandmother and other relatives, some of which had similar gifts to hers.

When in high school she'd known she could fix the depression the friends around her were going through. She could give them confidence enough to live so much more happily, but should she?

It was a constant argument in her head, as though two voices were fighting with each other. It usually always ended with her deciding to not do anything and was one of the reasons she didn't read people's emotions without good reason. Once she read everyone's emotions and her nature made her want to help.

Zara flicked her eyes to Jason and sighed. She would do it but only for this. She wove together a complex enhancement spell, but not just to enhance her empath gift. No, she tied it to her gift and linked them together. Her gift was odd in that when linked with her magical sense, it seemed to boost its ability. She felt her mind and magic expand. Suddenly she could sense so much more.

She could sense the problem in Jason now. And it disgusted her. Around his mind, weaving through his chest and down to his heart was an intricate cage of magical energy, unlike anything she'd ever seen before. She couldn't even begin to understand it, save for one obvious function.

This was what was causing the blip of confusion. She could see an aspect of the spell triggering in time with the blip. She moved her needle closer. Her eyes widened. It was messing with his thoughts, blocking him from thinking about certain things. Whenever his mind strayed too far from his current state, it would trigger and send him back. He was locked in.

How had she not noticed that before? It was probably because she hadn't been here for long. If she'd been with him for a few hours she would have noticed that his emotions never drifted or changed at all.

What in the world had done this? Who had done this? This was beyond illegal, and she had to admit beyond her. Zara thought she might be able to break but she couldn't be sure if that would damage his mind. Breaking and unraveling a spell were two different things. Breaking a spell could lead to damage or some negative effect while unraveling was pulling the spell part. Like ripping a tightly closed bag open against untying it.

She pulled out of the were, and did the same for his father who was under a similar spell, though his was weaker, which was odd since she would expect the older were and the alpha to need more power to keep him in check.

Zara considered her options. She had come here not knowing what to expect but it certainly hadn’t been this. Why had someone done this to him? She needed to talk to Ava and figure out what to do.

I don't really wanna anger whoever cast these spells.

Not to mention she had her extended family to deal with, and that was enough on its own. Zara shook her head and pocketed her phone as she wondered what the hell she had gotten herself into.