Magic, Christine realized, was a dangerous thing.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbIcCFFTL8r
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.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYdhcZyAcTJ
'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.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqlRjQxORbC
'Please! They're still in there...'
Christine woke.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcfU0zTxehq
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.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJnyKgDYLYp
It's funny, isn't it, she thinks grimly, as she gets dressed, that I can never blame myself for what happened.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡerjBQ3vvUP
You killed them!849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRI8xbMRtn9
I was eight. I had no idea what I was messing with.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxvnITJVRRH
Every day, every day, the same internal argument. Wasn't it time I moved on?849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgSizaPsgAp
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.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcq5ohTXMH1
But that night kept calling her back. The power she had felt when a flame formed in her hands.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSW1LgTN59C
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.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfGXSJhWRVv
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.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7HAO69jV2C
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.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8xjluJWbWt
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 -849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa5hdvZGGAo
There was a reason why magic was called magic. It didn't exist.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkDhQDC61Mf
But how did that old saying go? Magic is only magic until it's understood?849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR44el3Wpgn
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.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoP01BvIWuu
It's time to leave these things behind.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpw9naYUqGl
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.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP21xtBbikm
'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.'849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjEv5yrRssI
'Which is why you always taught me magic in the tunnels. Right.'849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC6ZdM2yTlF
The older man clapped his apprentice on the shoulder. 'You're fast. That's good.'849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCB7GgvCZkz
ding. ding. ding.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLqTsnY2VHr
The elevator stopped 40 metres below ground - the equivalent of 12 floors below basement. 849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH4pAnUalXw
'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.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWXqlz10jHM
'Hello?' His voice reverberated in the black hollow surrounding him.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIuVf2TutvY
The sound of fingers snapping, and a candelabra burst into radiance, revealing the table of hooded figures seated at a table beneath.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8Ba4ODEmnW
'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.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYSTqJK1Qki
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!849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2ea8YtsK9R
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.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7pIr44MNkn
Hughes gazed patiently at the door, reminiscing about all the lessons with Xavier, hoping that he would perform the trials flawlessly.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡECZfc3L1sz
A stifled moan from behind broke him out of his reverie.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV44KoJrmjO
'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.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡweRFlpN8ks
Hughes giggled to himself at what he was fully aware was a terrible joke - these people were Bound and gagged. Bound by the Bind.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNtvg9CwC1m
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.849Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2uZbRIuGGc
His son should be coming anytime now.
