Magic, Christine realized, was a dangerous thing.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYVwYyE5mdw
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.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuylpUaGCQx
'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.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhIuQAeEDl4
'Please! They're still in there...'
Christine woke.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkZVH5ZtFLC
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.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8G09s0F3LU
It's funny, isn't it, she thinks grimly, as she gets dressed, that I can never blame myself for what happened.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd2zqSHiUjA
You killed them!777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsHQ5351Tpb
I was eight. I had no idea what I was messing with.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbgzAggoDTN
Every day, every day, the same internal argument. Wasn't it time I moved on?777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbEf2AfrpMW
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.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2XsR9oVlLI
But that night kept calling her back. The power she had felt when a flame formed in her hands.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD71sMxTHLM
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.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXmErXL7HVn
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.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM8StOQRGGa
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.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrz18sSHoXd
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 -777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4ef3q8CXFO
There was a reason why magic was called magic. It didn't exist.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4onKTWVyqs
But how did that old saying go? Magic is only magic until it's understood?777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5yxHT3B9CP
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.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3kgl5PjoDW
It's time to leave these things behind.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3g3B0BxNPE
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.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn8WJuYqEQn
'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.'777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuiYQ6IILQ2
'Which is why you always taught me magic in the tunnels. Right.'777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVtDuzJ6GAF
The older man clapped his apprentice on the shoulder. 'You're fast. That's good.'777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEW4VpzTR2p
ding. ding. ding.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡncCARM6pe6
The elevator stopped 40 metres below ground - the equivalent of 12 floors below basement. 777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqgkTZIXMjJ
'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.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ832JxzZzVP
'Hello?' His voice reverberated in the black hollow surrounding him.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4td8kAsVhy
The sound of fingers snapping, and a candelabra burst into radiance, revealing the table of hooded figures seated at a table beneath.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxDgs7LcoL1
'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.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrCKPNT0RMw
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!777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9dRz3JLtuK
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.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ13D22tMRmP
Hughes gazed patiently at the door, reminiscing about all the lessons with Xavier, hoping that he would perform the trials flawlessly.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGSikp2Uno5
A stifled moan from behind broke him out of his reverie.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwo8ACkBijm
'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.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡolp488uylb
Hughes giggled to himself at what he was fully aware was a terrible joke - these people were Bound and gagged. Bound by the Bind.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvXxw6vjKMn
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.777Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWNi6tLyzNh
His son should be coming anytime now.
