Magic, Christine realized, was a dangerous thing.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7hxGrURLhX
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.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzisjgX7fau
'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.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKDZCvWnk3O
'Please! They're still in there...'
Christine woke.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNUza05kQt0
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.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbD65pGq0Ja
It's funny, isn't it, she thinks grimly, as she gets dressed, that I can never blame myself for what happened.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG9t7gMhC9S
You killed them!789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡntWpqepnCF
I was eight. I had no idea what I was messing with.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtIH0KeFLTT
Every day, every day, the same internal argument. Wasn't it time I moved on?789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGVQuwFLPl2
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.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqlfeQBQroc
But that night kept calling her back. The power she had felt when a flame formed in her hands.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfDPIPlQQSM
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.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1BNcrhbpn3
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.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMxPORRx76Q
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.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIgI87DF0M0
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 -789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4tFU7IN4Kr
There was a reason why magic was called magic. It didn't exist.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLEp0mYFhar
But how did that old saying go? Magic is only magic until it's understood?789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnOems0k9i0
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.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0gLPiKfuBv
It's time to leave these things behind.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4DXqW6sMFP
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.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMYonkbNtPK
'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.'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZI66MyHZ4j
'Which is why you always taught me magic in the tunnels. Right.'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmsjL4uIpRs
The older man clapped his apprentice on the shoulder. 'You're fast. That's good.'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFk9FodZ3hO
ding. ding. ding.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq3eRaUkdfb
The elevator stopped 40 metres below ground - the equivalent of 12 floors below basement. 789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsswRzUtXKe
'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.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB9MWHnjZRV
'Hello?' His voice reverberated in the black hollow surrounding him.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtBBgooQ6Id
The sound of fingers snapping, and a candelabra burst into radiance, revealing the table of hooded figures seated at a table beneath.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfgd9XPS7BR
'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.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbeLzhPZZ3t
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!789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5sj2V3k7IF
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.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy67UHU5auc
Hughes gazed patiently at the door, reminiscing about all the lessons with Xavier, hoping that he would perform the trials flawlessly.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKaNRiOz15M
A stifled moan from behind broke him out of his reverie.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJojxc95mAk
'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.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOzrqlmXtG6
Hughes giggled to himself at what he was fully aware was a terrible joke - these people were Bound and gagged. Bound by the Bind.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0RfNE5tL00
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.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJQkZrPDQLc
His son should be coming anytime now.
