'I don't quite know how to tell you this.' The doctor held her clipboard close to her chest. 'You're having twins.'603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG8VIswxzcM
'But that's great!' Brian hugged his wife, whose bulge was clearly visible beneath the white hospital sheets.603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoH7XGoXodw
'They have different fathers.'603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgk8P4JxR4r
Brian's smile began to fade. 'What do you mean?'603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUcMws4zTfh
'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.'603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6YfdTVhjDr
'Becca? Tell me it isn't true.' 603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfG72ZKkN3Q
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.603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCsJiX8HkRo
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.'603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6mL1wGu2ac
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.603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpONjiXQ7P5
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.603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8f7TogmyVd
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.603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNoqBU7hO1c
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.603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE5Y5IPR8wo
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.603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfuZi4kAcVe
When the child was a girl, they would know that there was to be a new High Priestess.603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjjC9V93CQG
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.603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNL5Is2wMWf
But here they were. Without a known High Priestess.603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoA8FdAg5oW
'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.603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBjipErwiBh
Without the High Priestess, Floor Twelve Minus was in danger.
'Rebecca?' He hadn't talked to her in almost a year.603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzVcZ8v8IZv
'Get away from me, Hughes. We should never have done that.'603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvwbd00LAWs
'Becca, what is it?'603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH2jFz8ud5h
'You have a child.' She spat. 'I gave him away to an orphanage. Angelhouse.'603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpuEaSxc3UV
'Oh my god.'603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ47butSmEkC
'Just go. You can have him if you want. I don't want to see you again, ever.'603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOLX2ERmDkB
'I'm going. I'm sorry.'603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnWF7UKyzCq
'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.603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbPmrlbjMjD
She gazed at the candle on the desk in front of her.603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtWmi4b9DGN
This is stupid.603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡas7iSgDsVQ
It may be, but it may also be real.603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCc5ShoxK1W
A hissing flame appeared and the wax began to glow.603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3dWtrZ2DVe
She licked her fingers and squeezed the fire to put it out.603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡimTmY7d1t8
Again? You're hallucinating. See your psychologist.603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR5tOcSKO1t
No, this is happening, this is really happening.603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzgtJ2UHcaL
The bright red bulb appeared again, brighter than before.603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFA8uxqvKpZ
'I did it.' She breathed, softer than a whisper. 'I saved the window washer.'603Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiUyKULgxbz
'I made the fire.'
