Magic, Christine realized, was a dangerous thing.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHpGb1Qfs71
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.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUpX3ZpN4Hl
'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.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXltTCb1gJJ
'Please! They're still in there...'
Christine woke.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5Xnn5op4rO
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.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEV1X1s0OdR
It's funny, isn't it, she thinks grimly, as she gets dressed, that I can never blame myself for what happened.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0kiUUIEPf4
You killed them!1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv9jtXA4sjT
I was eight. I had no idea what I was messing with.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtSkn0yAfQQ
Every day, every day, the same internal argument. Wasn't it time I moved on?1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnq7CeAOSIw
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.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0S08oZZxAM
But that night kept calling her back. The power she had felt when a flame formed in her hands.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡex7a9OqKHf
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.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOK5dP81vY0
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.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN8kLlW9ELM
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.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRgjnMygXVV
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 -1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmRFxmiZn8O
There was a reason why magic was called magic. It didn't exist.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRzpYGYKP69
But how did that old saying go? Magic is only magic until it's understood?1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBv7baaPzGe
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.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzlC0U66BIW
It's time to leave these things behind.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9xdqEmgfU5
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.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAMin5K2RxL
'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.'1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTWjCiwTqix
'Which is why you always taught me magic in the tunnels. Right.'1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJyKocwHvKI
The older man clapped his apprentice on the shoulder. 'You're fast. That's good.'1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡokSGRQvLpX
ding. ding. ding.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzGAMDsauHK
The elevator stopped 40 metres below ground - the equivalent of 12 floors below basement. 1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAuTTbTvpDM
'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.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5Zhj5hoebZ
'Hello?' His voice reverberated in the black hollow surrounding him.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdHQmgUgjte
The sound of fingers snapping, and a candelabra burst into radiance, revealing the table of hooded figures seated at a table beneath.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZykLaH11nc
'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.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoCgYX0fzli
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!1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoqolE4xmcG
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.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtHlTkwkWBm
Hughes gazed patiently at the door, reminiscing about all the lessons with Xavier, hoping that he would perform the trials flawlessly.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTFcuUfEwFy
A stifled moan from behind broke him out of his reverie.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXPpNigFMoq
'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.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO2gkuiVfah
Hughes giggled to himself at what he was fully aware was a terrible joke - these people were Bound and gagged. Bound by the Bind.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ35ZTmvuBfb
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.1003Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmBsYAhZjuI
His son should be coming anytime now.
and then Add to home screen.