Magic, Christine realized, was a dangerous thing.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLtIl7LFEep
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.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoJO9ZRnRi7
'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.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvp8bdhec6F
'Please! They're still in there...'
Christine woke.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡISsqoTsXyc
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.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYfIM6IxYdr
It's funny, isn't it, she thinks grimly, as she gets dressed, that I can never blame myself for what happened.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMh3SB6ElTe
You killed them!719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQD7drZvA3z
I was eight. I had no idea what I was messing with.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs4mMq2hPsJ
Every day, every day, the same internal argument. Wasn't it time I moved on?719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡytlLKyGvLD
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.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡynmFnBOf77
But that night kept calling her back. The power she had felt when a flame formed in her hands.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPJAyqH3twZ
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.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIkxPmSW5PE
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.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF6pMGwPSTE
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.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmbxszPTcSN
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 -719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGFKyeyexVx
There was a reason why magic was called magic. It didn't exist.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxCxSsG5yEA
But how did that old saying go? Magic is only magic until it's understood?719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE9zDBy3B3w
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.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd1WqkebEpZ
It's time to leave these things behind.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyWdiJJbnif
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.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2mbkvzoG62
'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.'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0IZdB1v8Zf
'Which is why you always taught me magic in the tunnels. Right.'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjvASYJDaf3
The older man clapped his apprentice on the shoulder. 'You're fast. That's good.'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm4ftwyBoKH
ding. ding. ding.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxtqmc45UOj
The elevator stopped 40 metres below ground - the equivalent of 12 floors below basement. 719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOFeveVt9L2
'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.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbs3CpZiltm
'Hello?' His voice reverberated in the black hollow surrounding him.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQu2FGTAdAA
The sound of fingers snapping, and a candelabra burst into radiance, revealing the table of hooded figures seated at a table beneath.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxxamh0CnDc
'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.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyjjGiTR6KI
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!719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzRo2If2qpE
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.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUJwyOhgrpO
Hughes gazed patiently at the door, reminiscing about all the lessons with Xavier, hoping that he would perform the trials flawlessly.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJowq6FYA6o
A stifled moan from behind broke him out of his reverie.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzrvPVFqC4W
'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.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5NfAjzGslz
Hughes giggled to himself at what he was fully aware was a terrible joke - these people were Bound and gagged. Bound by the Bind.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgiLOzl6yC0
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.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4LqUX7dm7p
His son should be coming anytime now.
