Magic, Christine realized, was a dangerous thing.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCCka3FNwOG
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.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5pKapT1dhv
'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.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzMQKlp51SU
'Please! They're still in there...'
Christine woke.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6qCisUqjNh
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.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4lQ8DiA7Tb
It's funny, isn't it, she thinks grimly, as she gets dressed, that I can never blame myself for what happened.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEcEKqYMoys
You killed them!823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡooyiTH9nfN
I was eight. I had no idea what I was messing with.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡESOVyaipqu
Every day, every day, the same internal argument. Wasn't it time I moved on?823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFEha5xd5a1
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.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG2lfPp0UfP
But that night kept calling her back. The power she had felt when a flame formed in her hands.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl04Kuqs85f
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.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjigP6VfSAf
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.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGhUqbtDUFD
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.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjdxTxpaNft
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 -823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYwrzLekNT5
There was a reason why magic was called magic. It didn't exist.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm84aHgmAy2
But how did that old saying go? Magic is only magic until it's understood?823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVPIiNOppbf
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.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfvxIgOvNTB
It's time to leave these things behind.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlt8wd2yzGM
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.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8G5w8IwCIz
'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.'823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuYqXpbU5op
'Which is why you always taught me magic in the tunnels. Right.'823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ16ThZFh51B
The older man clapped his apprentice on the shoulder. 'You're fast. That's good.'823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxcImgMedn9
ding. ding. ding.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc4rv56BrjL
The elevator stopped 40 metres below ground - the equivalent of 12 floors below basement. 823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDskNUc1uuI
'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.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHWmpVDFabJ
'Hello?' His voice reverberated in the black hollow surrounding him.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQMu02Pc41w
The sound of fingers snapping, and a candelabra burst into radiance, revealing the table of hooded figures seated at a table beneath.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡllxBFpN0jr
'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.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgRUHYBMVdG
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!823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡffM6CFUD7t
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.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVSqRjpxgx8
Hughes gazed patiently at the door, reminiscing about all the lessons with Xavier, hoping that he would perform the trials flawlessly.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSgtIHIT3FL
A stifled moan from behind broke him out of his reverie.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZDUbaLhiyQ
'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.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlgCPYxjOk9
Hughes giggled to himself at what he was fully aware was a terrible joke - these people were Bound and gagged. Bound by the Bind.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOLQMIn7afr
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.823Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡczTn5Ho56q
His son should be coming anytime now.
