'I don't quite know how to tell you this.' The doctor held her clipboard close to her chest. 'You're having twins.'654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT5JahUmrdA
'But that's great!' Brian hugged his wife, whose bulge was clearly visible beneath the white hospital sheets.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEjtRzwVFac
'They have different fathers.'654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ7gBolbfmq
Brian's smile began to fade. 'What do you mean?'654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa8ByiVweA4
'It's a rare occurrence. One in a million, I'd say. It's called superfecundation. It's when the two eggs are fertilized by different sperm within one ovulation cycle.'654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1siGEtXqdS
'Becca? Tell me it isn't true.' 654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYk2fnTK7hE
The woman in the hospital bed is silent for a moment. 'I'm so sorry.'
The girl, they called Christine. Christine was theirs. The boy, they didn't name. He went to an orphanage.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqBhD5XDBdw
They never talked about it again, not for the eight years after the twins came out. Not for the eight years before the fire.
'We've got another job. The target is WestGo Insurance. They're popular, and they're getting more and more powerful. Knight Finances doesn't want this. Our task is to break up WestGo, and it seems like it'll be pretty simple. The CEO, Gareth Greene, his office is on the 37th floor of the highrise office in the city. All we need to do is get a big enough fire going. With all the employees, all the brains, and the main center of the company gone it'll have collapsed enough for Knight Finances to take over the market.'654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlxyhaae7nC
Hughes, despite his age, was one of the most respected members of Floor Twelve Minus, and was the second in command. His leaving would have been upsetting, no doubt, so many members almost considered it a blessing that his son had failed the final Trial of the Bind.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiYwxe1wW8s
He was a skilled magician, excelling in the arts of fire and telekinesis. Revival was a power hardly needed in Floor Twelve Minus, and typically only the High Priestess could revive something as difficult as a human.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXFKhhR7wCu
It had become clear, after Xavier's trials, that Orla had lost the position of High Priestess. Once the new female magician turned 27, they would inherit all the power of the High Priestess - and the old High Priestess loses it all.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW4acm3QiGE
Orla had lost it all, and thus she served no more purpose. Floor Twelve Minus was quick to dispose of her, making Hughes the one to answer to.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsPoPkF0AO9
There was tension growing within the members. The ability to pull power from the Void, the ability to perform magic, was hereditary. They liked to keep track of all the magicians they knew. So they developed the system that satisfied them all. Every member would impregnate a non-magic woman through the means of an affair, and through any means break all bonds but take custody of the child. They would train their child, almost always a son, and on the child's 27th, they would take the place of their father.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQCusxzyTi6
When the child was a girl, they would know that there was to be a new High Priestess.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjZ15IuAsfC
The problem was this - the system had worked for over a century, and the four High Priestesses in that time were all within the system, leading them to believe that no magicians existed in the world outside of Floor Twelve Minus.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnIeefIFXZJ
But here they were. Without a known High Priestess.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCsZHmOIauz
'Are you all paying attention?' Hughes demanded, attempting to gain the same authority of Orla while she was in power. But he was rattled, too.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYX3PF8GR0k
Without the High Priestess, Floor Twelve Minus was in danger.
'Rebecca?' He hadn't talked to her in almost a year.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKoraxMVWVY
'Get away from me, Hughes. We should never have done that.'654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP2tTIoMNbK
'Becca, what is it?'654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXXuPJorbv2
'You have a child.' She spat. 'I gave him away to an orphanage. Angelhouse.'654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWbWlhfccJx
'Oh my god.'654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHehLAM9jVh
'Just go. You can have him if you want. I don't want to see you again, ever.'654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9FrZn2ycFx
'I'm going. I'm sorry.'654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfjMoUvNxdH
'No you're not. You men never are. Now get out of my sight.'
Christine knew she had done it. However impossible, she had saved the man. She was growing increasingly confident that her memories of the fire were more than childhood imagination. It had been her. She did the fire. And she could do it again.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXmXZYxIwfB
She gazed at the candle on the desk in front of her.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyy8bFhtuji
This is stupid.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXl7cMTv72Y
It may be, but it may also be real.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrhXucAWU7d
A hissing flame appeared and the wax began to glow.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKIQ1fbEKz0
She licked her fingers and squeezed the fire to put it out.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRhVNKarh2e
Again? You're hallucinating. See your psychologist.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzHpqdwQxGj
No, this is happening, this is really happening.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy6tY3XEKB2
The bright red bulb appeared again, brighter than before.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7Qns5hhDmR
'I did it.' She breathed, softer than a whisper. 'I saved the window washer.'654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnJicWggU88
'I made the fire.'
