'I don't quite know how to tell you this.' The doctor held her clipboard close to her chest. 'You're having twins.'653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzVdx12AEe7
'But that's great!' Brian hugged his wife, whose bulge was clearly visible beneath the white hospital sheets.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFVXlSDHBUF
'They have different fathers.'653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6SfDhXDwAp
Brian's smile began to fade. 'What do you mean?'653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlnqnq20dqM
'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.'653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJiye2RkuUX
'Becca? Tell me it isn't true.' 653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw1x7jKpjTS
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.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDIqIpuTvLC
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.'653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSpoquxkymF
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.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Y9mtyvZIa
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.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEc5zDbY6Nc
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.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI5TMBmysbJ
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.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDDbJyMa6ch
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.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfTQ0bEKCY4
When the child was a girl, they would know that there was to be a new High Priestess.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB80G5QxWUR
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.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU46ToV2N7M
But here they were. Without a known High Priestess.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBdFVAhB3vA
'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.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwRBufYO7Qg
Without the High Priestess, Floor Twelve Minus was in danger.
'Rebecca?' He hadn't talked to her in almost a year.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOahwpbv3wf
'Get away from me, Hughes. We should never have done that.'653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAUMv0jJCpO
'Becca, what is it?'653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXuy53oggTw
'You have a child.' She spat. 'I gave him away to an orphanage. Angelhouse.'653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnV61MRlLDt
'Oh my god.'653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB3ifL2aCMf
'Just go. You can have him if you want. I don't want to see you again, ever.'653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs57HXGQ8Jb
'I'm going. I'm sorry.'653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzOn0HBDTKC
'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.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlWIwWyk2ye
She gazed at the candle on the desk in front of her.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2iEGcDkn6i
This is stupid.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd3sOpuy5yA
It may be, but it may also be real.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBg1J6EoBqb
A hissing flame appeared and the wax began to glow.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡat2f8Af5Fe
She licked her fingers and squeezed the fire to put it out.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ41HRVHtufO
Again? You're hallucinating. See your psychologist.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgxNWjm2GTY
No, this is happening, this is really happening.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFcHbkNYMqi
The bright red bulb appeared again, brighter than before.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ65cgWWwYNE
'I did it.' She breathed, softer than a whisper. 'I saved the window washer.'653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJYShBCw6Rq
'I made the fire.'
