"This should be the mailbox..."
Gun in hand, Lorne walked for less than a minute before reaching the old mailbox Hibbert had described.
He did not approach recklessly. Instead, he leaned against a nearby wall, hidden in its shadow, and quietly surveyed his surroundings.
"Nothing unusual..."
Lorne detected no unusual activity nearby. His Calamity Premonition had not triggered either. Everything seemed peaceful.
"Am I too late..."
He waited another few dozen seconds. Only when nothing stirred did he put away his gun and slowly approach.
First, he activated Spirit Vision and examined the mailbox from top to bottom. Finding no curses or Beyonder traces clinging to its surface, he reached out, lifted the flap over the slot, and peered inside. It was empty.
"All the letters have been collected. Was it the postman... or someone else..."
Just as Lorne lowered his head in thought, his spiritual intuition suddenly detected something amiss.
It felt as though something was watching him!
He hurriedly drew his gun and whipped around.
"Caw..."
On a nearby roof, a raven with jet-black feathers let out a hoarse cry. It took flight, swept past Lorne, and flew into the dusky yellow sky, soon vanishing from sight.
Lorne slowly lowered his pistol and fell silent.
"I thought I'd simply gone a little too far with the contents of my letter, causing panic among the lower-level gangs and making it spread faster..."
"I never expected someone to be deliberately fanning the flames, let alone that Beyonder powers were involved..."
On his way back, Lorne considered everything that had happened that day.
If he had not happened across that squad of Nighthawks and followed them out of curiosity, he probably would not have discovered this anytime soon.
And Earl Hall's eldest son would most likely have ended up in