Magic, Christine realized, was a dangerous thing.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3trCer4IdN
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.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2vfFP4fGTw
'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.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO0mZExSAYv
'Please! They're still in there...'
Christine woke.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNGqja6iYlx
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.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNmlj7ahf8K
It's funny, isn't it, she thinks grimly, as she gets dressed, that I can never blame myself for what happened.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxiYXhIciN6
You killed them!835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN3lRaY5b8m
I was eight. I had no idea what I was messing with.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpyVIdLpuNz
Every day, every day, the same internal argument. Wasn't it time I moved on?835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6rtQ48QPFn
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.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡil539NC90M
But that night kept calling her back. The power she had felt when a flame formed in her hands.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgLdkwhBxgJ
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.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq4LyNCWzRQ
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.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5brcqbZ5O3
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.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9xkvjLdPOe
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 -835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDsOELDeDpT
There was a reason why magic was called magic. It didn't exist.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVjaSHxrPAU
But how did that old saying go? Magic is only magic until it's understood?835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBKctSWTV3M
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.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ10e2O4qAkF
It's time to leave these things behind.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU1aI6h3z97
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.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2cTgMtH63W
'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.'835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPygrwnDTcb
'Which is why you always taught me magic in the tunnels. Right.'835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyS2ew1d6Ux
The older man clapped his apprentice on the shoulder. 'You're fast. That's good.'835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdrS9CdkjTU
ding. ding. ding.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBWwd2Di3ay
The elevator stopped 40 metres below ground - the equivalent of 12 floors below basement. 835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8S1jYeqDE4
'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.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnz47wBVY17
'Hello?' His voice reverberated in the black hollow surrounding him.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF1zJqVI4wQ
The sound of fingers snapping, and a candelabra burst into radiance, revealing the table of hooded figures seated at a table beneath.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbsVfz5PPMq
'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.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfnFEi4gNKF
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!835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ6ikhCXE8Z
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.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4qxgvbbETg
Hughes gazed patiently at the door, reminiscing about all the lessons with Xavier, hoping that he would perform the trials flawlessly.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPof29eMPfH
A stifled moan from behind broke him out of his reverie.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEXLbyR2dAa
'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.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYu8H5B34dL
Hughes giggled to himself at what he was fully aware was a terrible joke - these people were Bound and gagged. Bound by the Bind.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiuRQd6JRfe
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.835Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8dGMsFd4UW
His son should be coming anytime now.
