'I don't quite know how to tell you this.' The doctor held her clipboard close to her chest. 'You're having twins.'596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhuoKYncLuf
'But that's great!' Brian hugged his wife, whose bulge was clearly visible beneath the white hospital sheets.596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXxzGN991FS
'They have different fathers.'596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7wovRHUTfe
Brian's smile began to fade. 'What do you mean?'596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS1ntWh2RVK
'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.'596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyldS4trAnc
'Becca? Tell me it isn't true.' 596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxBWDbCIXSk
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.596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjVQYUOKSdH
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.'596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF9sXUxRvIC
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.596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvix2Ub2GcP
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.596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXfb10BJL7I
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.596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1lYHl24Yh4
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.596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0jI8m9QPJm
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.596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFmXAP2ycdG
When the child was a girl, they would know that there was to be a new High Priestess.596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡksGsONMV1a
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.596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYiC7lB42vv
But here they were. Without a known High Priestess.596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtfXKhKE6ll
'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.596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOUPwFrRWIv
Without the High Priestess, Floor Twelve Minus was in danger.
'Rebecca?' He hadn't talked to her in almost a year.596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSaz7oMrbH2
'Get away from me, Hughes. We should never have done that.'596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHwv2GfCAyu
'Becca, what is it?'596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpNugQF9bqi
'You have a child.' She spat. 'I gave him away to an orphanage. Angelhouse.'596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfWPYs6AcOB
'Oh my god.'596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEUf1UdCs1k
'Just go. You can have him if you want. I don't want to see you again, ever.'596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8JuT2M2C4B
'I'm going. I'm sorry.'596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnLQGnL3dYB
'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.596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc4tDdOP85Y
She gazed at the candle on the desk in front of her.596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGVWVrHPCmz
This is stupid.596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡawCcSKe9mH
It may be, but it may also be real.596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuriccCpUPx
A hissing flame appeared and the wax began to glow.596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUd5f2BZWLK
She licked her fingers and squeezed the fire to put it out.596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0fbThx6BI0
Again? You're hallucinating. See your psychologist.596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEVVxIzA9PF
No, this is happening, this is really happening.596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtrZi54Ha4G
The bright red bulb appeared again, brighter than before.596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmsSjocknG1
'I did it.' She breathed, softer than a whisper. 'I saved the window washer.'596Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0I4TtTlGcL
'I made the fire.'
