Magic, Christine realized, was a dangerous thing.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA6O51N3k8k
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.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQGGVeITFTa
'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.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeOIpywyKAz
'Please! They're still in there...'
Christine woke.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnu69EvO6yr
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.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqp7tXNbKRr
It's funny, isn't it, she thinks grimly, as she gets dressed, that I can never blame myself for what happened.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRTyzCjO6lG
You killed them!696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3PEn8NHsAv
I was eight. I had no idea what I was messing with.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2kgR9pmKBb
Every day, every day, the same internal argument. Wasn't it time I moved on?696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJOziCOxJaX
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.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUocEXIjDZG
But that night kept calling her back. The power she had felt when a flame formed in her hands.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrRGcLelEMt
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.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGw8PO7RQ5K
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.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqwI3iGm4ny
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.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBN1IScaeun
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 -696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm8nUozh7Vg
There was a reason why magic was called magic. It didn't exist.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8MtjbL4v1M
But how did that old saying go? Magic is only magic until it's understood?696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzEESIuuj3D
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.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBIcYco9t0w
It's time to leave these things behind.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC1xuz11WB0
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.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTGkX1oRAjJ
'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.'696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9Qp52nIlIT
'Which is why you always taught me magic in the tunnels. Right.'696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAaRuO4oXt5
The older man clapped his apprentice on the shoulder. 'You're fast. That's good.'696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ923Sn7gS2
ding. ding. ding.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfY9r5IJq7e
The elevator stopped 40 metres below ground - the equivalent of 12 floors below basement. 696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0k01eKfmQk
'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.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡec5v29Gbr9
'Hello?' His voice reverberated in the black hollow surrounding him.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNaku42CJ1s
The sound of fingers snapping, and a candelabra burst into radiance, revealing the table of hooded figures seated at a table beneath.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQYDte5GwCs
'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.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA0HfnUuEQF
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!696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkFipYmuUBQ
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.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyumfp9WaIG
Hughes gazed patiently at the door, reminiscing about all the lessons with Xavier, hoping that he would perform the trials flawlessly.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk54EqdJc23
A stifled moan from behind broke him out of his reverie.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbnrTIvRrf4
'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.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHUqCfRVI56
Hughes giggled to himself at what he was fully aware was a terrible joke - these people were Bound and gagged. Bound by the Bind.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtequMWW8lI
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.696Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK6qEzukj38
His son should be coming anytime now.
