Magic, Christine realized, was a dangerous thing.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡepoguFpuzj
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.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAjaabFoonL
'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.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6S4EyIfteW
'Please! They're still in there...'
Christine woke.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJnkkzkyydR
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.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtcIFwEVPQL
It's funny, isn't it, she thinks grimly, as she gets dressed, that I can never blame myself for what happened.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdj1qTSD4Et
You killed them!650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBipNFGsKZr
I was eight. I had no idea what I was messing with.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ5M7hSbkjc
Every day, every day, the same internal argument. Wasn't it time I moved on?650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1wAdidcrlr
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.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRDc9PAXpDq
But that night kept calling her back. The power she had felt when a flame formed in her hands.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHI6fWmivBx
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.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvTPUbq2w9L
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.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb3EUJ16XY4
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.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd4tcLCjLG2
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 -650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUgSPh5K7ah
There was a reason why magic was called magic. It didn't exist.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9WcZJk8460
But how did that old saying go? Magic is only magic until it's understood?650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAFzA2JkSPh
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.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQbyxDD9XyZ
It's time to leave these things behind.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ18RD2QCsJr
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.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡedimdtWbyQ
'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.'650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyLV4S6aAKE
'Which is why you always taught me magic in the tunnels. Right.'650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtIsf7fPfvS
The older man clapped his apprentice on the shoulder. 'You're fast. That's good.'650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡggw5j8yZJ3
ding. ding. ding.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2crVqsf9Uc
The elevator stopped 40 metres below ground - the equivalent of 12 floors below basement. 650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCru0SiH3mZ
'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.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxGR3eJLYwZ
'Hello?' His voice reverberated in the black hollow surrounding him.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJEI4JJsYe7
The sound of fingers snapping, and a candelabra burst into radiance, revealing the table of hooded figures seated at a table beneath.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9c6afED1Bi
'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.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnIw9ioKCyi
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!650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKJWETVVEDl
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.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaJ4SA9BgJC
Hughes gazed patiently at the door, reminiscing about all the lessons with Xavier, hoping that he would perform the trials flawlessly.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG24aHxsOtc
A stifled moan from behind broke him out of his reverie.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFcV9MmOUlK
'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.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBI5IVMaZ9y
Hughes giggled to himself at what he was fully aware was a terrible joke - these people were Bound and gagged. Bound by the Bind.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPRlP82az6k
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.650Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3jifR6Wun2
His son should be coming anytime now.
