'I don't quite know how to tell you this.' The doctor held her clipboard close to her chest. 'You're having twins.'634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTr92eVJTs3
'But that's great!' Brian hugged his wife, whose bulge was clearly visible beneath the white hospital sheets.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoNHidVReSU
'They have different fathers.'634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ73I5yatDT9
Brian's smile began to fade. 'What do you mean?'634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2elLpaRjnl
'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.'634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrJc8Tax9ws
'Becca? Tell me it isn't true.' 634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUIEWAu5rPv
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.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKouwLtRUxc
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.'634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEdkUqHj3Nh
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.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQIAngnMwYi
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.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZRcpdrqK4R
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.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhmonbNhmAV
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.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEgPpatmmmk
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.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU8VtVKO0vD
When the child was a girl, they would know that there was to be a new High Priestess.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTPlDGYFziN
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.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvFVG4Lo8br
But here they were. Without a known High Priestess.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTGexw4z9Ue
'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.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgl3QD94mBw
Without the High Priestess, Floor Twelve Minus was in danger.
'Rebecca?' He hadn't talked to her in almost a year.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpOY8l7vAok
'Get away from me, Hughes. We should never have done that.'634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3PFLzDdeho
'Becca, what is it?'634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNw4wJClD2R
'You have a child.' She spat. 'I gave him away to an orphanage. Angelhouse.'634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9LWId9gzdY
'Oh my god.'634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkmSrsFj4WC
'Just go. You can have him if you want. I don't want to see you again, ever.'634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiy5TNzDqMD
'I'm going. I'm sorry.'634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPh7ZjYgJ6L
'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.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2gZMpcMcpZ
She gazed at the candle on the desk in front of her.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6xGJcjUWWB
This is stupid.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkNWfpuT5Lz
It may be, but it may also be real.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe84JvoLFln
A hissing flame appeared and the wax began to glow.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRm9MEQSVVM
She licked her fingers and squeezed the fire to put it out.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsi6ap2MwV0
Again? You're hallucinating. See your psychologist.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXt9stV2Sqf
No, this is happening, this is really happening.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYdeDmDv41Y
The bright red bulb appeared again, brighter than before.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ14XzSCC0kW
'I did it.' She breathed, softer than a whisper. 'I saved the window washer.'634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGdyeJGHrxQ
'I made the fire.'
