Magic, Christine realized, was a dangerous thing.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzMATMO2mLU
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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAEqDnDnWZ0
'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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa5WYHNYGu4
'Please! They're still in there...'
Christine woke.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMKODsF9MjD
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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5R6S96KZsm
It's funny, isn't it, she thinks grimly, as she gets dressed, that I can never blame myself for what happened.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQIKpunoKEy
You killed them!589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ10pTN2ulZP
I was eight. I had no idea what I was messing with.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiGC4KdZr0H
Every day, every day, the same internal argument. Wasn't it time I moved on?589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkpwKKgee0t
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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXaLIVxW6qc
But that night kept calling her back. The power she had felt when a flame formed in her hands.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhhWsTqV6gK
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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzLmBS5RWVJ
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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb5LWQ9PsTJ
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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡejQIVzPB5b
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 -589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡchQCD7Go0D
There was a reason why magic was called magic. It didn't exist.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡewq2XGvnzl
But how did that old saying go? Magic is only magic until it's understood?589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7pbolbpEWj
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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYvn4yRwlTd
It's time to leave these things behind.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN5EV9XXO0z
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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡURtfqhns7t
'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.'589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBDgcP3kHV5
'Which is why you always taught me magic in the tunnels. Right.'589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRyh4cGFZEs
The older man clapped his apprentice on the shoulder. 'You're fast. That's good.'589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyOu2gA9Qoq
ding. ding. ding.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpOnArhE3px
The elevator stopped 40 metres below ground - the equivalent of 12 floors below basement. 589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcQ8u6SihXI
'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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGbG1rds34D
'Hello?' His voice reverberated in the black hollow surrounding him.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQWY4kqDwLa
The sound of fingers snapping, and a candelabra burst into radiance, revealing the table of hooded figures seated at a table beneath.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSbMd9mruf7
'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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4nmzgLV1aO
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!589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuQb4thSx6B
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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡruNAnmwmFq
Hughes gazed patiently at the door, reminiscing about all the lessons with Xavier, hoping that he would perform the trials flawlessly.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBquuTDG52A
A stifled moan from behind broke him out of his reverie.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH5CZuMEnJ7
'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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6TCzni6R2l
Hughes giggled to himself at what he was fully aware was a terrible joke - these people were Bound and gagged. Bound by the Bind.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8wE11YejzB
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.589Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmD9xnC98Ht
His son should be coming anytime now.
