'I don't quite know how to tell you this.' The doctor held her clipboard close to her chest. 'You're having twins.'672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI0wNGkEL7F
'But that's great!' Brian hugged his wife, whose bulge was clearly visible beneath the white hospital sheets.672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoUa7qo00pn
'They have different fathers.'672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvX3AiEgzZp
Brian's smile began to fade. 'What do you mean?'672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡagrUpxccyf
'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.'672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmqEBAQMiCG
'Becca? Tell me it isn't true.' 672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTBfuvWpWT9
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.672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBKqAPwbk8U
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.'672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqniiBq0bJq
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.672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdG5yF2NFrl
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.672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmumdbur4B9
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.672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuVTW3qs2Eg
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.672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLJ0IuYwijf
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.672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmg6JX36I7O
When the child was a girl, they would know that there was to be a new High Priestess.672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlS94BbaKKO
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.672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq4pyaoX8rc
But here they were. Without a known High Priestess.672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp0aSah7cyI
'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.672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJWU0RLt4pI
Without the High Priestess, Floor Twelve Minus was in danger.
'Rebecca?' He hadn't talked to her in almost a year.672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡROsDiCybmF
'Get away from me, Hughes. We should never have done that.'672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9iW2yA5klN
'Becca, what is it?'672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ65vqm29h8p
'You have a child.' She spat. 'I gave him away to an orphanage. Angelhouse.'672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvyAxSCwWQr
'Oh my god.'672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj9lb8jgpbK
'Just go. You can have him if you want. I don't want to see you again, ever.'672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ92Cz51pXSH
'I'm going. I'm sorry.'672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu9cfabBkL9
'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.672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2E49pRcghK
She gazed at the candle on the desk in front of her.672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAcs3QvmJcW
This is stupid.672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkKT54WuxmX
It may be, but it may also be real.672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXwKqAA4UpL
A hissing flame appeared and the wax began to glow.672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMIf7qhUwnI
She licked her fingers and squeezed the fire to put it out.672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXhtv8ALHJi
Again? You're hallucinating. See your psychologist.672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8tWvwFrPRG
No, this is happening, this is really happening.672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqjfSNFfA33
The bright red bulb appeared again, brighter than before.672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoWo5iKxBvm
'I did it.' She breathed, softer than a whisper. 'I saved the window washer.'672Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWzZI8UqHGD
'I made the fire.'
