'I don't quite know how to tell you this.' The doctor held her clipboard close to her chest. 'You're having twins.'552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb0rzIs81DS
'But that's great!' Brian hugged his wife, whose bulge was clearly visible beneath the white hospital sheets.552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqBtpUPFCcV
'They have different fathers.'552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmUPwaoCleA
Brian's smile began to fade. 'What do you mean?'552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNW4EyU8d5c
'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.'552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzdlu9zQUJ2
'Becca? Tell me it isn't true.' 552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn7EbLjWl80
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.552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxeJlmbsMRa
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.'552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKIniuNIppq
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.552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp87KPKQW8l
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.552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlUDGpiqSxm
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.552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtP1YPZMaVT
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.552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA6sV79prpC
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.552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL4I1PwCIbm
When the child was a girl, they would know that there was to be a new High Priestess.552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtNHGssuAhC
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.552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVV3MLDpvf6
But here they were. Without a known High Priestess.552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEpjAA5iROH
'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.552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr9ZSJabWA0
Without the High Priestess, Floor Twelve Minus was in danger.
'Rebecca?' He hadn't talked to her in almost a year.552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbPdvzRpnZ8
'Get away from me, Hughes. We should never have done that.'552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZhCOvC3Wzh
'Becca, what is it?'552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv0p5LoXEar
'You have a child.' She spat. 'I gave him away to an orphanage. Angelhouse.'552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡczeVkRO5vK
'Oh my god.'552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ97pLHBYjzL
'Just go. You can have him if you want. I don't want to see you again, ever.'552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0AwSSp1eKP
'I'm going. I'm sorry.'552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxyyhHQIUor
'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.552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjtOXKrVkqF
She gazed at the candle on the desk in front of her.552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡysdQZ2q2sf
This is stupid.552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4zTp5qqx1K
It may be, but it may also be real.552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiQfCmJDbbM
A hissing flame appeared and the wax began to glow.552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwf5VY2k4kk
She licked her fingers and squeezed the fire to put it out.552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK9o2odjtqd
Again? You're hallucinating. See your psychologist.552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvyg0nTY1RQ
No, this is happening, this is really happening.552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBn8NE9dkzl
The bright red bulb appeared again, brighter than before.552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6t4YMpjbkZ
'I did it.' She breathed, softer than a whisper. 'I saved the window washer.'552Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI4tGtL11Cn
'I made the fire.'
