'I don't quite know how to tell you this.' The doctor held her clipboard close to her chest. 'You're having twins.'606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaQGxuuJgqC
'But that's great!' Brian hugged his wife, whose bulge was clearly visible beneath the white hospital sheets.606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKKotcISxna
'They have different fathers.'606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjPYYK1rolt
Brian's smile began to fade. 'What do you mean?'606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLVkR0fJS0y
'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.'606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLHcF9jCM0Y
'Becca? Tell me it isn't true.' 606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN4vTni4MLq
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.606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOJAz9IEWUb
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.'606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpuYQNnXzqN
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.606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxHtmXUCX9Z
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.606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTqUUGKwhtN
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.606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlvXFZLp2IB
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.606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ26MmyZVoab
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.606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI97v33Nliw
When the child was a girl, they would know that there was to be a new High Priestess.606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF8SNBGIcvE
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.606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf3d5xhMf4m
But here they were. Without a known High Priestess.606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbSSGN2gDun
'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.606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRtMMvXGZA3
Without the High Priestess, Floor Twelve Minus was in danger.
'Rebecca?' He hadn't talked to her in almost a year.606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ31Et0arLwW
'Get away from me, Hughes. We should never have done that.'606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhID4ilq6HR
'Becca, what is it?'606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG1GuDY5zNN
'You have a child.' She spat. 'I gave him away to an orphanage. Angelhouse.'606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgBepqGSkNc
'Oh my god.'606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSdYeYepkyu
'Just go. You can have him if you want. I don't want to see you again, ever.'606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡijskiyO3vo
'I'm going. I'm sorry.'606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡutJawGwm6i
'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.606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoUucupJYus
She gazed at the candle on the desk in front of her.606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ00hREHAy15
This is stupid.606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuwPWdVfc6W
It may be, but it may also be real.606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6wLEEOokMl
A hissing flame appeared and the wax began to glow.606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXlOMQ2fKk8
She licked her fingers and squeezed the fire to put it out.606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIcg1MUZ75R
Again? You're hallucinating. See your psychologist.606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL7Z9jdaP4v
No, this is happening, this is really happening.606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK5JRS6TvJC
The bright red bulb appeared again, brighter than before.606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJLRu5zA1U6
'I did it.' She breathed, softer than a whisper. 'I saved the window washer.'606Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGiFs56xWzh
'I made the fire.'
