Magic, Christine realized, was a dangerous thing.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ3Klfjuynv
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.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2fEpvkh9A7
'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.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYl33bZMtaY
'Please! They're still in there...'
Christine woke.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTHGw4gnwkH
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.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgc767cUqEH
It's funny, isn't it, she thinks grimly, as she gets dressed, that I can never blame myself for what happened.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXe2S9M8UWr
You killed them!798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPNNV7sh2LC
I was eight. I had no idea what I was messing with.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUHlCx45NpO
Every day, every day, the same internal argument. Wasn't it time I moved on?798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeUGwH0w4EU
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.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdHTRmBi8d4
But that night kept calling her back. The power she had felt when a flame formed in her hands.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡltAeIeA3MI
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.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXWgRa7C8P6
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.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcnqJdKZusz
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.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn4eZmBPJJo
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 -798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE4sYLANusX
There was a reason why magic was called magic. It didn't exist.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd6RLrJ0gzr
But how did that old saying go? Magic is only magic until it's understood?798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl5m4GwBVkE
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.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlGnxckbDTg
It's time to leave these things behind.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTcQibugUst
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.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8ilueE502O
'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.'798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxmVQQqAewK
'Which is why you always taught me magic in the tunnels. Right.'798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYFmO8mOz9W
The older man clapped his apprentice on the shoulder. 'You're fast. That's good.'798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb1qyOvmr8Q
ding. ding. ding.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbFn5VW3FhS
The elevator stopped 40 metres below ground - the equivalent of 12 floors below basement. 798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmBT0eijmxl
'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.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5U3K75Brqr
'Hello?' His voice reverberated in the black hollow surrounding him.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡafil996Dun
The sound of fingers snapping, and a candelabra burst into radiance, revealing the table of hooded figures seated at a table beneath.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE8yAugTspi
'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.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqyYfIHEbfQ
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!798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvwQmdEcZ4S
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.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2BO7B0P5BM
Hughes gazed patiently at the door, reminiscing about all the lessons with Xavier, hoping that he would perform the trials flawlessly.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlEV070d5Nc
A stifled moan from behind broke him out of his reverie.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoycCTnKWp9
'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.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiNi2xFkH0Z
Hughes giggled to himself at what he was fully aware was a terrible joke - these people were Bound and gagged. Bound by the Bind.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpw6MCppFGV
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.798Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzkZXJN0crB
His son should be coming anytime now.
