'I don't quite know how to tell you this.' The doctor held her clipboard close to her chest. 'You're having twins.'482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjWMuN0uRQg
'But that's great!' Brian hugged his wife, whose bulge was clearly visible beneath the white hospital sheets.482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH3DmJy66wo
'They have different fathers.'482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDgKRTMXgzP
Brian's smile began to fade. 'What do you mean?'482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdHtcvXcynm
'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.'482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR5vqYNpekN
'Becca? Tell me it isn't true.' 482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnyoEuLOEPY
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.482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTSUBKbZyO0
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.'482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkr0sNXC55k
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.482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZfziyJhYAX
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.482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUzqrBIf7TT
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.482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVN3rQv8cVA
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.482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmAzP8Gmg3L
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.482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC0wb8ZSGdP
When the child was a girl, they would know that there was to be a new High Priestess.482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0LdXbzUUfd
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.482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2viJXSb5g2
But here they were. Without a known High Priestess.482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuLUr4qqAUU
'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.482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9baHNqdttQ
Without the High Priestess, Floor Twelve Minus was in danger.
'Rebecca?' He hadn't talked to her in almost a year.482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjJt4456MOC
'Get away from me, Hughes. We should never have done that.'482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0n5Rwwzs6P
'Becca, what is it?'482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9RFJqYUnEU
'You have a child.' She spat. 'I gave him away to an orphanage. Angelhouse.'482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgipADol7mH
'Oh my god.'482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ98KRkqq09V
'Just go. You can have him if you want. I don't want to see you again, ever.'482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsAepdik0V1
'I'm going. I'm sorry.'482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI3aEUeuqv3
'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.482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6gj05yR6gp
She gazed at the candle on the desk in front of her.482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb7Sik5ESlK
This is stupid.482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGSgHioFy1H
It may be, but it may also be real.482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpJ9J8T4igE
A hissing flame appeared and the wax began to glow.482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOo1MUHORcY
She licked her fingers and squeezed the fire to put it out.482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJTXk46SuGd
Again? You're hallucinating. See your psychologist.482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWQLSUcSOw2
No, this is happening, this is really happening.482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGjAVowvtq9
The bright red bulb appeared again, brighter than before.482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEIRlJoBnNZ
'I did it.' She breathed, softer than a whisper. 'I saved the window washer.'482Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8EhZWVNzCY
'I made the fire.'
