Magic, Christine realized, was a dangerous thing.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY2nJjl6Uxd
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.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2iQnq8Bm5I
'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.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCWHeeccngM
'Please! They're still in there...'
Christine woke.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9qYZ67hEBg
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.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGFFbPZBXWj
It's funny, isn't it, she thinks grimly, as she gets dressed, that I can never blame myself for what happened.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPcdV7mkzsl
You killed them!727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgTuRqmZgOW
I was eight. I had no idea what I was messing with.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXU4ZWL0rOb
Every day, every day, the same internal argument. Wasn't it time I moved on?727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrOHk0XdxgE
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.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy8G7ebXoAn
But that night kept calling her back. The power she had felt when a flame formed in her hands.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLbrPSHQnF8
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.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZUnpxvQoPE
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.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFaOq5oQuyb
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.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoBo1amjRMY
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 -727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdbzRZEmZxE
There was a reason why magic was called magic. It didn't exist.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4ZGOcwVE56
But how did that old saying go? Magic is only magic until it's understood?727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7VRVmxL03T
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.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW5k3b2L3S7
It's time to leave these things behind.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOozu94yAuK
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.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqb5rKM3BUM
'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.'727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPVxsVTgIGl
'Which is why you always taught me magic in the tunnels. Right.'727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5Yp0PXjbBv
The older man clapped his apprentice on the shoulder. 'You're fast. That's good.'727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNCkur4idbN
ding. ding. ding.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiCpnPiVTAF
The elevator stopped 40 metres below ground - the equivalent of 12 floors below basement. 727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ136dOwhaN8
'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.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaU25E2qMIP
'Hello?' His voice reverberated in the black hollow surrounding him.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnhZWfOFMa1
The sound of fingers snapping, and a candelabra burst into radiance, revealing the table of hooded figures seated at a table beneath.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwYsZ7obkIO
'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.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡehNhAwSUR8
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!727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpzFjPq5RyH
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.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBcvDwjs5zU
Hughes gazed patiently at the door, reminiscing about all the lessons with Xavier, hoping that he would perform the trials flawlessly.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9GfTsY90Ue
A stifled moan from behind broke him out of his reverie.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS9TCR3yovS
'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.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzFV3V2NF2Z
Hughes giggled to himself at what he was fully aware was a terrible joke - these people were Bound and gagged. Bound by the Bind.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYPMp0YzMaZ
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.727Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCq95yfnMLG
His son should be coming anytime now.
