'I don't quite know how to tell you this.' The doctor held her clipboard close to her chest. 'You're having twins.'570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOidjZyMLSD
'But that's great!' Brian hugged his wife, whose bulge was clearly visible beneath the white hospital sheets.570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI3VJHc4paM
'They have different fathers.'570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfkiTZ1B7AI
Brian's smile began to fade. 'What do you mean?'570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd3aWn3Us3O
'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.'570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVZBMJntRnb
'Becca? Tell me it isn't true.' 570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv7GJ8w6AZI
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.570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPToLyjYDVt
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.'570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNyR5HajG7v
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.570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWeuq2ajnoF
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.570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZM6iFTGl6k
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.570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEGSIGJWi2n
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.570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3sXVV9yCVF
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.570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrL375a39AX
When the child was a girl, they would know that there was to be a new High Priestess.570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSHn9pAGvE0
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.570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9cfngzl2eL
But here they were. Without a known High Priestess.570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKThGtjh9A6
'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.570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyraSgnRXTO
Without the High Priestess, Floor Twelve Minus was in danger.
'Rebecca?' He hadn't talked to her in almost a year.570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6X1xczA5Id
'Get away from me, Hughes. We should never have done that.'570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYyNrRPViQ3
'Becca, what is it?'570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFIn8QfGHid
'You have a child.' She spat. 'I gave him away to an orphanage. Angelhouse.'570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQx26OJZl0s
'Oh my god.'570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHfh2StsIZr
'Just go. You can have him if you want. I don't want to see you again, ever.'570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcdAqknv5g2
'I'm going. I'm sorry.'570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdgFF6gLkz6
'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.570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnJw1kDtgLH
She gazed at the candle on the desk in front of her.570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiwcAxPh1NB
This is stupid.570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcXDBm5OjoS
It may be, but it may also be real.570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmQ64VEDBcL
A hissing flame appeared and the wax began to glow.570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW6jD1d6lNd
She licked her fingers and squeezed the fire to put it out.570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLEDBm5x5FU
Again? You're hallucinating. See your psychologist.570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWYPMnCPbLO
No, this is happening, this is really happening.570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuKBx3SGjBm
The bright red bulb appeared again, brighter than before.570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡehtdwr5eyr
'I did it.' She breathed, softer than a whisper. 'I saved the window washer.'570Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBs5SgdgHQJ
'I made the fire.'
