'I don't quite know how to tell you this.' The doctor held her clipboard close to her chest. 'You're having twins.'628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGMMYh0E0DX
'But that's great!' Brian hugged his wife, whose bulge was clearly visible beneath the white hospital sheets.628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjIKeOUZTQR
'They have different fathers.'628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH7E8MnUf8S
Brian's smile began to fade. 'What do you mean?'628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe9RrJC77gV
'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.'628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMpsCruUPVr
'Becca? Tell me it isn't true.' 628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqQDr0MEFCE
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.628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRGoqlWiTCb
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.'628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ55eYvoDHlc
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.628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRvvRWrlV8b
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.628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8ml4Td8BEf
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.628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOVz06RfPgj
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.628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW21G9WPKtZ
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.628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5KUNrhENTe
When the child was a girl, they would know that there was to be a new High Priestess.628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwzC4l7sDwP
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.628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0ij9aJxiwU
But here they were. Without a known High Priestess.628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2gWd8L0Ua1
'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.628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdHThT0CFlZ
Without the High Priestess, Floor Twelve Minus was in danger.
'Rebecca?' He hadn't talked to her in almost a year.628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIPwFkeNcrv
'Get away from me, Hughes. We should never have done that.'628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIEtXIrwaL1
'Becca, what is it?'628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTOftVd4PrK
'You have a child.' She spat. 'I gave him away to an orphanage. Angelhouse.'628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCRnIxbf4xt
'Oh my god.'628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpJVtsRMFQG
'Just go. You can have him if you want. I don't want to see you again, ever.'628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMCgGMctGYE
'I'm going. I'm sorry.'628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGU9R8hlo3z
'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.628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWaUUtt7I9j
She gazed at the candle on the desk in front of her.628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnJmcZDYJbh
This is stupid.628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIZSsWbCv8v
It may be, but it may also be real.628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrlLt4k70Rd
A hissing flame appeared and the wax began to glow.628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8sPfOYIEn0
She licked her fingers and squeezed the fire to put it out.628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2zakiswBl2
Again? You're hallucinating. See your psychologist.628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxsDcwuQMrs
No, this is happening, this is really happening.628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNtAmUyU0Dg
The bright red bulb appeared again, brighter than before.628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDa4pRca3LL
'I did it.' She breathed, softer than a whisper. 'I saved the window washer.'628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLanj2NgU91
'I made the fire.'
