Alec had the spell on his lips as he waited for the first person to come to him, likely the Sea King himself. It was a passive spell, a simple one, one he had used many times on many a noble, in order to always seem one step ahead of them. It merely scanned their thoughts for information on their next of kin. Their location, and the target's current disposition for them. Simple, but could tell much.
Alec cast the spell the moment he saw movement, and his surprise was palpable as he cast it and found Astrid standing before him! He did not expect his daughter to be the one greeting him, away from her captors no less. With a glance back to his boat, his first instinct indeed was to whisk her away and be done with these damned pirates.
But a moment later, his spell told him much. He felt six people in her mind. Six who qualified as "Next of Kin." There was himself, of course, and her sister Sylvia, and her missing daughter. As for their location, Astrid believed her daughter lost and Sylvia to be home, which was true. Obviously she knew her father was right there. Her love for all three shone through brightly, though the pain of her daughter's loss echoed through his mind. He had never before cast such a spell on her, always leaving her privacy to herself.
But the other three. Her former lover, Eban, the boy who had sired her daughter. The fact he was her daughter's father made him next of kin in her mind. And beyond that, she knew of two of his brothers, Thorir...and Einar?
Two of which were here! Eban, and his brother Thorir, were on this island! From her emotional state towards them, he felt she still cared for her old lover, but was not mad about him as she once was, much to Alec's relief. But this other man...there was fear. There was a grudging respect, a recent understanding. There was...something else. She thought he a beast of a man, an uncouth Sea King.
The Sea King. His eyes narrowed. The man who kidnapped his daughter was brother to the man she was to marry, and in tow was her old lover. The sheer insanity of this one sentence almost had him shake it off as the fantasies of some old story his gram used to tell the children.
Only moments passed as he learned all this information, simply holding her in his arms as he processed it all. She did not seem to be a captive. She did not think she was a captive. But that something else that he had felt towards Thorir...it was trust. No. Not trust. A need for cooperation. Something had changed. She had a tale to tell, his daughter did, and he needed to let her tell it.
He held her back and looked at her, "You're not hurt. Good. Now take me to Thorir. I would hear what he has to say."