'I don't quite know how to tell you this.' The doctor held her clipboard close to her chest. 'You're having twins.'607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrT5LgrUFBM
'But that's great!' Brian hugged his wife, whose bulge was clearly visible beneath the white hospital sheets.607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC4EAmUQ1Nr
'They have different fathers.'607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJKqCOzAHyn
Brian's smile began to fade. 'What do you mean?'607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡenYeXz71LZ
'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.'607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡExJ7tSXZHT
'Becca? Tell me it isn't true.' 607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxDjUqTaypg
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.607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ71uSqt9FNC
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.'607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ07hAVqCJk
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.607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcpVVs9Qs7e
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.607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlVVSFOPmri
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.607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡznOJynB7Z3
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.607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5sIByKrDF8
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.607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNZZGiPC75C
When the child was a girl, they would know that there was to be a new High Priestess.607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNuZd3k7tKv
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.607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgIpgfYEVrX
But here they were. Without a known High Priestess.607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdFDiSpDPSC
'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.607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl6uMdDGJgC
Without the High Priestess, Floor Twelve Minus was in danger.
'Rebecca?' He hadn't talked to her in almost a year.607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzlmjRMk4aJ
'Get away from me, Hughes. We should never have done that.'607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv3KuKxrEYz
'Becca, what is it?'607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKwUavjhLoZ
'You have a child.' She spat. 'I gave him away to an orphanage. Angelhouse.'607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1X5p7tZCBi
'Oh my god.'607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcjBK73zGgp
'Just go. You can have him if you want. I don't want to see you again, ever.'607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2U9a4rzvbq
'I'm going. I'm sorry.'607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVvp2gMbKXk
'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.607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoH8ar7Yspa
She gazed at the candle on the desk in front of her.607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyWI5SXtcTc
This is stupid.607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlQ3VoqR8LH
It may be, but it may also be real.607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaIlqcX8eUG
A hissing flame appeared and the wax began to glow.607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKTxQnkv8Sn
She licked her fingers and squeezed the fire to put it out.607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRhcWzK886h
Again? You're hallucinating. See your psychologist.607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjVXVbaI7Dp
No, this is happening, this is really happening.607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkGGH4tLmqa
The bright red bulb appeared again, brighter than before.607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOthAGqLelI
'I did it.' She breathed, softer than a whisper. 'I saved the window washer.'607Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHBS2tSf5Nk
'I made the fire.'
