Magic, Christine realized, was a dangerous thing.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlcARIr6mqF
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.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvPE4eFR0Xx
'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.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡifbXwyaW4A
'Please! They're still in there...'
Christine woke.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3KKAb6rVxO
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.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzdF9eOhmuT
It's funny, isn't it, she thinks grimly, as she gets dressed, that I can never blame myself for what happened.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNarsRnRJI2
You killed them!649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkzjoQRfDMD
I was eight. I had no idea what I was messing with.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb9pu7Ggd3o
Every day, every day, the same internal argument. Wasn't it time I moved on?649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyiY1Vd0naN
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.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6lvMvMiIXw
But that night kept calling her back. The power she had felt when a flame formed in her hands.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzSlg7g7bEF
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.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRpDbOmYMEi
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.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2fxH2NglEi
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.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCVnntVf0M8
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 -649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtm9xsiY6Te
There was a reason why magic was called magic. It didn't exist.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMX9GU2Ftrd
But how did that old saying go? Magic is only magic until it's understood?649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzVdRPbdmGz
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.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT0adwVT259
It's time to leave these things behind.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqep4VrBl9e
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.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdaozV2ng8H
'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.'649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHeIUQZzIyn
'Which is why you always taught me magic in the tunnels. Right.'649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Uv1w1DqhZ
The older man clapped his apprentice on the shoulder. 'You're fast. That's good.'649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIdUkahjVrl
ding. ding. ding.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKfImQCTmoK
The elevator stopped 40 metres below ground - the equivalent of 12 floors below basement. 649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ14fAEKpOXW
'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.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1gmMqD52yk
'Hello?' His voice reverberated in the black hollow surrounding him.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxXp45uaPOO
The sound of fingers snapping, and a candelabra burst into radiance, revealing the table of hooded figures seated at a table beneath.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbifVAiEVDp
'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.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDMzYxkWh6Q
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!649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBRsvTkefXP
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.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj7Z9i47olJ
Hughes gazed patiently at the door, reminiscing about all the lessons with Xavier, hoping that he would perform the trials flawlessly.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTn9W9dNxPT
A stifled moan from behind broke him out of his reverie.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqRiUK5kcwq
'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.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAwvjP99O2U
Hughes giggled to himself at what he was fully aware was a terrible joke - these people were Bound and gagged. Bound by the Bind.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLIT35blxOg
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.649Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡncjYzcV9Yc
His son should be coming anytime now.
