Magic, Christine realized, was a dangerous thing.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD4FKnjh1Lv
Crying, shouting, eyes burning red from the flames just a few feet away, the men dragged her away from the crumbling house where everything that was precious to her fell to ashes.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOI1hJYApEz
'They're still in there!' She shouted, but the noise of the fire and the sirens drowned out her pleas, the endless crackle-crackle-crackle that suffocated her voice.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr9lyJwjFfm
'Please! They're still in there...'
Christine woke.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW5C3ILs8rT
She knew now, of course, that the firemen knew that her parents were inside. They also knew it was too late to save them. But when she was a child, she felt so much anger, so much rage at them for having left her mother and father to die.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdPNpshpwBW
It's funny, isn't it, she thinks grimly, as she gets dressed, that I can never blame myself for what happened.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAZZPpdsk2W
You killed them!851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSRkySaD3Eo
I was eight. I had no idea what I was messing with.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgE8FK5Xd5b
Every day, every day, the same internal argument. Wasn't it time I moved on?851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ27idC8OmHl
She was trying. She had landed herself a job at a distinguished business, WestGo Insurance, at one of the tallest office buildings in the city center. She'd signed up for yoga classes - heck, she'd joined a few dating sites.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbPb779Ry1U
But that night kept calling her back. The power she had felt when a flame formed in her hands.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcL6mDuBeWb
Stop it. Don't you dare think about that as a good thing. And it was probably all just my imagination - playing with matches or the like.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS0TDw7kgEJ
The psychologists had said she simply concocted the fantasy as a way of dispersing blame. If it was magic, if it really was, she would no longer carry the entire weight of her parents' deaths.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQazWjXq4sh
But Christine was never one for fantasies, even when she was a child - she knew what was real, and she always liked to stay firmly in the real.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRtcc3J6t5s
Sometimes, when she was alone, she'd try to remember that feeling - try to feel the internal pulse travelling out of her fingertips and imagine the ember gently glowing from nothing. But just as she always expected, nothing would happen -851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj9KWh39ThR
There was a reason why magic was called magic. It didn't exist.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9TgynoBGWF
But how did that old saying go? Magic is only magic until it's understood?851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnUezWE90Dh
Christine sighed. She had a full day of work ahead of her, and she was already tired. Forget it. You were a stupid kid, once.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmBgcI5L86N
It's time to leave these things behind.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe3EifkAyqN
So why, she wondered as she looked out her apartment window, do I feel like it's only now that these things are catching up with me?
'Why Floor Twelve Minus?' It was the boy's 27th birthday - the date when he was to learn the darkest secret of magic.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcMed06UIw6
'Because it's deep down in the ground. The closer you are to the Void, the easier it is to draw power from it. Makes practice that little bit simpler.'851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyKEFPisodQ
'Which is why you always taught me magic in the tunnels. Right.'851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ00nwM4kobq
The older man clapped his apprentice on the shoulder. 'You're fast. That's good.'851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwTHOua4mf9
ding. ding. ding.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjz7fdpCZZz
The elevator stopped 40 metres below ground - the equivalent of 12 floors below basement. 851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYUu7pywB5G
'I leave you here. You can do this.' The younger man stepped out of the lift nervously, eyes straining in the darkness, while the metal doors closed behind him, taut fiber ropes hauling the entrance - and exit - to Floor Twelve Minus far, far, above him.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtvNmNvgvr9
'Hello?' His voice reverberated in the black hollow surrounding him.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfasVvc4O5Z
The sound of fingers snapping, and a candelabra burst into radiance, revealing the table of hooded figures seated at a table beneath.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3Ycnz2Gv7p
'Welcome, Xavier, to Floor Twelve Minus. Hughes has been saying very good things about you.' The voice was deep, but had an unarguably feminine undertone. It was the High Priestess Orla. She rose from the center chair. 'Your trials begin now.'
Hughes took his place in the antechamber of Floor Twelve Minus. His student would be undergoing his trials in just a few minutes - fire, revival, and telekinesis. A successful performance of those magics would prove Xavier's worth as a magician. How he responded to the unbreakable law of magic - the Bind - would prove his worth for Floor Twelve Minus.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnFgpeewXpN
Floor Twelve Minus had begun as a cult, Hughes had no doubt. Individuals scattered around the world with powers they didn't understand. Fools. Perhaps a few managed to find each other, to explore and develop their skills - Hughes laughed as he thought about their discovery of the Bind. How long they must have played before they realized magic had a price!851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5CrfZnkqKw
It must have been then that only the worthy ones practiced the art. They must have realized the potential of it all - and suddenly, magicians became hired assassins, conspirators. Mostly these days it was corporate espionage, the occasional murder - magic left no evidence.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7WKCU1pesr
Hughes gazed patiently at the door, reminiscing about all the lessons with Xavier, hoping that he would perform the trials flawlessly.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlY6YkaBEgj
A stifled moan from behind broke him out of his reverie.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNTdgEeKfz1
'Shut up!' He snapped, and the gagged figure in the back corner of the room flinched. In the other corner, another figure had passed out.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡduT9JNLaRV
Hughes giggled to himself at what he was fully aware was a terrible joke - these people were Bound and gagged. Bound by the Bind.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY1ptlGbGrg
Before he realized, it had grown into a roaring laugh, amplified by the acoustics of the chamber, every escaping breath turning into a discordant ringing.851Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqB3myq211i
His son should be coming anytime now.
