Magic, Christine realized, was a dangerous thing.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeSXfYrnUO6
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.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLyxZ0yo1ZZ
'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.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsy3ZJGLX85
'Please! They're still in there...'
Christine woke.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5aC56xWLqE
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.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7hB9R5thmw
It's funny, isn't it, she thinks grimly, as she gets dressed, that I can never blame myself for what happened.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1FqY6TOqrV
You killed them!721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIlbavQJIYJ
I was eight. I had no idea what I was messing with.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡni8PNveuze
Every day, every day, the same internal argument. Wasn't it time I moved on?721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMNQaORIgKb
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.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGC1N3e3iil
But that night kept calling her back. The power she had felt when a flame formed in her hands.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbsnoJi68uM
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.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgXWasfHyAh
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.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlaMAKQSzlR
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.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOqa1YUFULV
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 -721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvJxKYwGu6I
There was a reason why magic was called magic. It didn't exist.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf6xFUuQxnL
But how did that old saying go? Magic is only magic until it's understood?721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBYwRZfZXW6
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.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG6WmQqzPmd
It's time to leave these things behind.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMBxPMv6KSK
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.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtW0EwUIFci
'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.'721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmgJnbmNYqJ
'Which is why you always taught me magic in the tunnels. Right.'721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoTJhCVFAP0
The older man clapped his apprentice on the shoulder. 'You're fast. That's good.'721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPj65zDtCmh
ding. ding. ding.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2BeFxfqMoA
The elevator stopped 40 metres below ground - the equivalent of 12 floors below basement. 721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAw7ZyNDxVw
'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.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTHZnoxmCld
'Hello?' His voice reverberated in the black hollow surrounding him.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG3BzDGYxhc
The sound of fingers snapping, and a candelabra burst into radiance, revealing the table of hooded figures seated at a table beneath.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0ltqK23apS
'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.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzivejyaISf
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!721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeviMxfbgQs
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.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMF25hlnc2y
Hughes gazed patiently at the door, reminiscing about all the lessons with Xavier, hoping that he would perform the trials flawlessly.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF3DynOAD70
A stifled moan from behind broke him out of his reverie.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7r02uutFIH
'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.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPYnHeVH275
Hughes giggled to himself at what he was fully aware was a terrible joke - these people were Bound and gagged. Bound by the Bind.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpOLgyeCzmr
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.721Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡStamKQysII
His son should be coming anytime now.
