Magic, Christine realized, was a dangerous thing.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ85xgFqepBm
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.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKLN4zJ7IvQ
'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.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSllvWstVV6
'Please! They're still in there...'
Christine woke.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjzrhBby5xq
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.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡidTtyiVs8O
It's funny, isn't it, she thinks grimly, as she gets dressed, that I can never blame myself for what happened.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZAobI6rKEi
You killed them!811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEmUwqlU2h2
I was eight. I had no idea what I was messing with.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqvH7c9qTMr
Every day, every day, the same internal argument. Wasn't it time I moved on?811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9Ivq9LvO6h
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.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdpxw7Cqetc
But that night kept calling her back. The power she had felt when a flame formed in her hands.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4qnZhHizs1
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.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHrieLTMuYv
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.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf37K8mWcf1
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.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6XBBZQM7nf
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 -811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrtk4VbkCTQ
There was a reason why magic was called magic. It didn't exist.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBdezfsZYlH
But how did that old saying go? Magic is only magic until it's understood?811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoqC13tOdUC
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.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtspI1HFq76
It's time to leave these things behind.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrzjr1mlfaT
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.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNMoNFYoQtI
'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.'811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv23s8celmp
'Which is why you always taught me magic in the tunnels. Right.'811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpnczzSgdjq
The older man clapped his apprentice on the shoulder. 'You're fast. That's good.'811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFzC9DFBfhI
ding. ding. ding.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiKoLYXqQtY
The elevator stopped 40 metres below ground - the equivalent of 12 floors below basement. 811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRlBiXjT3Q2
'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.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVg1Rlfdqxl
'Hello?' His voice reverberated in the black hollow surrounding him.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBJe1varLiA
The sound of fingers snapping, and a candelabra burst into radiance, revealing the table of hooded figures seated at a table beneath.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5FaQ02SlGj
'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.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyklMbI0GZ8
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!811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtZION8D9a3
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.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6jMkjXU7Hh
Hughes gazed patiently at the door, reminiscing about all the lessons with Xavier, hoping that he would perform the trials flawlessly.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKSbAy4y6cn
A stifled moan from behind broke him out of his reverie.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNiGA8M0wVJ
'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.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGTGADuZJxZ
Hughes giggled to himself at what he was fully aware was a terrible joke - these people were Bound and gagged. Bound by the Bind.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4M77Jy9E37
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.811Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZcxF7PYJLa
His son should be coming anytime now.
