'I don't quite know how to tell you this.' The doctor held her clipboard close to her chest. 'You're having twins.'647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdVTXdUwvkn
'But that's great!' Brian hugged his wife, whose bulge was clearly visible beneath the white hospital sheets.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ9DK3uG0VN
'They have different fathers.'647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs23qRwO6BO
Brian's smile began to fade. 'What do you mean?'647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡco0IMMx6wZ
'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.'647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA4jAH5fuMd
'Becca? Tell me it isn't true.' 647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡySuVjOnbw6
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.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4mgRwcfuoE
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.'647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF4FROrjeXi
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.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbXbq2p2iPZ
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.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXMC9loRg71
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.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpLWS2ULYtJ
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.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ92E0ElMz5L
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.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHC04bxsWDr
When the child was a girl, they would know that there was to be a new High Priestess.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdzx6lD6WJR
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.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4zBiIzddz2
But here they were. Without a known High Priestess.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5SoPYIwMoR
'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.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNjExTfKVnp
Without the High Priestess, Floor Twelve Minus was in danger.
'Rebecca?' He hadn't talked to her in almost a year.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs9pyEUfn9E
'Get away from me, Hughes. We should never have done that.'647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD8admpMEde
'Becca, what is it?'647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzb5nynOk2J
'You have a child.' She spat. 'I gave him away to an orphanage. Angelhouse.'647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQJY1IAAOjE
'Oh my god.'647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1jNydkqtsz
'Just go. You can have him if you want. I don't want to see you again, ever.'647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ85mfQgXAks
'I'm going. I'm sorry.'647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5gJ2qIl6X1
'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.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPbJbg9H8lM
She gazed at the candle on the desk in front of her.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKPJtFAnN0l
This is stupid.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUHcpfRPp3B
It may be, but it may also be real.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLW4iQzIN9y
A hissing flame appeared and the wax began to glow.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDGfqpWxfGA
She licked her fingers and squeezed the fire to put it out.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTWKbmKf9MU
Again? You're hallucinating. See your psychologist.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi0FprhHZBi
No, this is happening, this is really happening.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnxfhoek6ub
The bright red bulb appeared again, brighter than before.647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsLlIyEolkT
'I did it.' She breathed, softer than a whisper. 'I saved the window washer.'647Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq9khMl3YcM
'I made the fire.'
