Magic, Christine realized, was a dangerous thing.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQYrRAsQ3sp
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.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqAEWUCzgvY
'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.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5WMti3ouVY
'Please! They're still in there...'
Christine woke.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvwiuPAIW30
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.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGH4ykF8O0Y
It's funny, isn't it, she thinks grimly, as she gets dressed, that I can never blame myself for what happened.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnWNUIlyp61
You killed them!832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡajh8vQ3WKt
I was eight. I had no idea what I was messing with.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYHcdPDNCrB
Every day, every day, the same internal argument. Wasn't it time I moved on?832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLJr8wFNhIv
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.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOpwt64i3ca
But that night kept calling her back. The power she had felt when a flame formed in her hands.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBhfRqRymNV
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.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF9qhKfG4nB
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.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhLxljieCG1
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.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEbAmxmnuih
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 -832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKogfSZzGYW
There was a reason why magic was called magic. It didn't exist.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9aP4w4UoZY
But how did that old saying go? Magic is only magic until it's understood?832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD1ephQv5UU
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.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLNqe68zVnf
It's time to leave these things behind.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡejoZbIHvpy
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.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuXAUBsHfDc
'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.'832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQgG64KEwnv
'Which is why you always taught me magic in the tunnels. Right.'832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2bx8d8eUHO
The older man clapped his apprentice on the shoulder. 'You're fast. That's good.'832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHiCLrW5Kr3
ding. ding. ding.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1Uh5c1B4kR
The elevator stopped 40 metres below ground - the equivalent of 12 floors below basement. 832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRkpdCO4B6E
'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.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWntjmwVv1c
'Hello?' His voice reverberated in the black hollow surrounding him.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIzsNVPe0Fd
The sound of fingers snapping, and a candelabra burst into radiance, revealing the table of hooded figures seated at a table beneath.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCVlfz2yrtW
'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.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsGTIA2ggg9
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!832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPg2EIYUiyl
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.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDiOESz0VJT
Hughes gazed patiently at the door, reminiscing about all the lessons with Xavier, hoping that he would perform the trials flawlessly.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn2V0hc99SD
A stifled moan from behind broke him out of his reverie.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkBH9NzzkHV
'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.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeMubuVqipU
Hughes giggled to himself at what he was fully aware was a terrible joke - these people were Bound and gagged. Bound by the Bind.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAlf87oegsl
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.832Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQxhi17ugYZ
His son should be coming anytime now.
