After spending the night at MI9 headquarters, Xio returned to the detached house she rented with Fors, carrying breakfast for two. To her surprise, her friend was nowhere to be found.
Xio set down the breakfasts and checked the wall clock. It agreed with her pocket watch: nine in the morning.
"Fors got up before ten and even went out?" Xio found it hard to believe. It was the last day of October. Although Backlund was not terribly cold, for her friend to resist the lure of the fireplace and leave the house in weather thick with fog and bone-deep chill was extraordinary.
A quick look around the room revealed a note from Fors. She had gone out to look for writing inspiration.
"Fors has become diligent since joining the Tarot Club... I'm no different, though. If I don't work harder, we won't even be able to pay next month's rent..."
With a sigh, Xio put her worries aside. After a hurried breakfast, she began packing her luggage.
Meanwhile, in a booth at a café, Fors sat across from an elderly man named Lawrence Nord.
She had met him outside the former home of Mrs. Anlisa, the old woman who had left her a Beyonder Characteristic and a bracelet. He said he was a relative of Mrs. Anlisa's husband.
Abner told me... and Mr. Fool confirmed it too. My bracelet and the Full Moon curse are probably both connected to the Abraham Family...
Mrs. Anlisa's husband was likely a member of that famous family from the Fourth Epoch. As his relative, Lawrence probably is too...
*He doesn't know Mrs. Anlisa's husband died, so he doesn't know she inherited his estate and became a Beyonder. He'd never imagine she left her belongings to me... But as an Abraham, he must