Magic, Christine realized, was a dangerous thing.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP9ZgqosOpj
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.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfn8ld5v3Pu
'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.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡISYdxjgVqO
'Please! They're still in there...'
Christine woke.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqaYa2wtwue
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.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9Kq8eUQHXT
It's funny, isn't it, she thinks grimly, as she gets dressed, that I can never blame myself for what happened.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡifaIROjn3j
You killed them!838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV7WHfn5NP2
I was eight. I had no idea what I was messing with.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡotdIuFqGJR
Every day, every day, the same internal argument. Wasn't it time I moved on?838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoV2XAsOmBL
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.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnMdA2t0vHg
But that night kept calling her back. The power she had felt when a flame formed in her hands.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo1z8ylcG2O
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.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNT18NpmnU4
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.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvQ4ivea46X
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.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgoXcKWuQ4N
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 -838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzrV6bdF5jt
There was a reason why magic was called magic. It didn't exist.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Yglr6rix8
But how did that old saying go? Magic is only magic until it's understood?838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqscXztUIDg
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.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSUMbTL1YwX
It's time to leave these things behind.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTpGIGRB14i
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.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVcmCrSjwHt
'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.'838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmufw1VfZcD
'Which is why you always taught me magic in the tunnels. Right.'838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzl6RR6sEXs
The older man clapped his apprentice on the shoulder. 'You're fast. That's good.'838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw8BY2lgFmW
ding. ding. ding.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEfjZ4vPwJs
The elevator stopped 40 metres below ground - the equivalent of 12 floors below basement. 838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjJUgBqZ83S
'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.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjHETVoItNM
'Hello?' His voice reverberated in the black hollow surrounding him.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo9LoJQKHYl
The sound of fingers snapping, and a candelabra burst into radiance, revealing the table of hooded figures seated at a table beneath.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ56E2gkQhUz
'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.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡda234eezyw
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!838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ88rRbbEeG9
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.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPl31QrRPjU
Hughes gazed patiently at the door, reminiscing about all the lessons with Xavier, hoping that he would perform the trials flawlessly.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkbYUvjwn3P
A stifled moan from behind broke him out of his reverie.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLCgLNrPK1l
'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.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡONtXYXaNqZ
Hughes giggled to himself at what he was fully aware was a terrible joke - these people were Bound and gagged. Bound by the Bind.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXNQ0YULIHU
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.838Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJSoDsGNG1N
His son should be coming anytime now.
