'I don't quite know how to tell you this.' The doctor held her clipboard close to her chest. 'You're having twins.'683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVw92SNpqKn
'But that's great!' Brian hugged his wife, whose bulge was clearly visible beneath the white hospital sheets.683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8gyYQ8dEjo
'They have different fathers.'683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4tqY3Fr1nA
Brian's smile began to fade. 'What do you mean?'683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU5t8K4abRw
'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.'683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxR2a9tWD8A
'Becca? Tell me it isn't true.' 683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu7HMTJcJjx
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.683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxvwDhLh5Yo
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.'683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcLSyxaUxXS
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.683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZpNxACuVu1
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.683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmpA2uNIX9L
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.683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡROXMQjVvQq
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.683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7IhUSqDM8h
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.683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaY3ot4fZTR
When the child was a girl, they would know that there was to be a new High Priestess.683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWnYcHr2QPv
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.683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbpQ5BhgeGu
But here they were. Without a known High Priestess.683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVbEiEvsF1T
'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.683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl5Fw5q0NRw
Without the High Priestess, Floor Twelve Minus was in danger.
'Rebecca?' He hadn't talked to her in almost a year.683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSW95F8k9Xd
'Get away from me, Hughes. We should never have done that.'683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGyrHSssgct
'Becca, what is it?'683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyKszN7IqGf
'You have a child.' She spat. 'I gave him away to an orphanage. Angelhouse.'683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxro7d7Pvzz
'Oh my god.'683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFYqeS4Lue6
'Just go. You can have him if you want. I don't want to see you again, ever.'683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7JZOQh2gfl
'I'm going. I'm sorry.'683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtzbquiad87
'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.683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ53eQ6Q6IyJ
She gazed at the candle on the desk in front of her.683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡekRuhptPIX
This is stupid.683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYR8BvFUC97
It may be, but it may also be real.683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZnAjGDrHkG
A hissing flame appeared and the wax began to glow.683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQNsObcBlUu
She licked her fingers and squeezed the fire to put it out.683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYhlflBC6uv
Again? You're hallucinating. See your psychologist.683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrn7XfBwnN6
No, this is happening, this is really happening.683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg4nz6v8tBT
The bright red bulb appeared again, brighter than before.683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ34ElayGiIS
'I did it.' She breathed, softer than a whisper. 'I saved the window washer.'683Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOx1O98rIzW
'I made the fire.'
