Melisa didn't go to the bar that night.
Instead, she sat cross-legged in her room at the cottage, eyes closed, essence detection stretched as far as she could push it. The village hummed around her, hundreds of signatures pulsing in the dark. Kitsune sleeping, kitsune drinking, kitsune fucking. The usual.
She was looking for something else.
[Come on... I should be able to feel it happening. Right? A sudden drop in someone's essence... Something.]
Hours passed. Nothing unusual. Melisa's head started to ache from the sustained concentration, but she kept at it.
Around midnight, she finally gave up and went to sleep.
The next day was more of the same.
Melisa skipped training with Tessa, claiming she wasn't feeling well. Instead, she wandered the village, watching, sensing, cataloguing. She found three more sick kitsune and asked each of them the same questions.
When did you start feeling ill?
Did anything unusual happen around that time?
Did you sleep with anyone new?
