Magic, Christine realized, was a dangerous thing.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVaPe4Zm23g
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.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKMr41pvnE9
'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.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGPyryZmSxp
'Please! They're still in there...'
Christine woke.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNDo6vhOgWV
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.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLQF5gJdWFu
It's funny, isn't it, she thinks grimly, as she gets dressed, that I can never blame myself for what happened.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmEGuKnthyO
You killed them!763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ90pyig8pud
I was eight. I had no idea what I was messing with.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVfCMrIDU8N
Every day, every day, the same internal argument. Wasn't it time I moved on?763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcJiaLWyh8s
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.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3Hwp6giL29
But that night kept calling her back. The power she had felt when a flame formed in her hands.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBavhiZGvTq
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.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDcME661Pps
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.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4xOAnOhXRp
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.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXTC9YRN0iy
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 -763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDOukcxEpHK
There was a reason why magic was called magic. It didn't exist.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDvCb0sgMuV
But how did that old saying go? Magic is only magic until it's understood?763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡulX8mjj3zZ
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.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYawF6mJy8A
It's time to leave these things behind.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbnk4iT0uHk
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.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEb4kReJ3pe
'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.'763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk61MXMyFuV
'Which is why you always taught me magic in the tunnels. Right.'763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrgfvKksfV8
The older man clapped his apprentice on the shoulder. 'You're fast. That's good.'763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ15cS8LJ0cc
ding. ding. ding.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoq3uMJx3Tx
The elevator stopped 40 metres below ground - the equivalent of 12 floors below basement. 763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCOUiWTAUvk
'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.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBoXFsPrCTf
'Hello?' His voice reverberated in the black hollow surrounding him.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa1HTW2HwzX
The sound of fingers snapping, and a candelabra burst into radiance, revealing the table of hooded figures seated at a table beneath.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡETFfxGP6jP
'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.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡum7Kf1StGj
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!763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6ASBnLZwR5
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.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwdwDbvx75O
Hughes gazed patiently at the door, reminiscing about all the lessons with Xavier, hoping that he would perform the trials flawlessly.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpRUDxNkaL0
A stifled moan from behind broke him out of his reverie.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW5dqFkej1f
'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.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPDECyBuQ3M
Hughes giggled to himself at what he was fully aware was a terrible joke - these people were Bound and gagged. Bound by the Bind.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiDWZXrkshY
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.763Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoqtX9CGU5z
His son should be coming anytime now.
