Magic, Christine realized, was a dangerous thing.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhIUDBkvW2L
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.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTNvVu95xPN
'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.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3nHVRfCoko
'Please! They're still in there...'
Christine woke.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPagb3YNpez
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.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9PKficNDnd
It's funny, isn't it, she thinks grimly, as she gets dressed, that I can never blame myself for what happened.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmwS4a6cqOu
You killed them!522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzYaapb0KaJ
I was eight. I had no idea what I was messing with.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfc7bCfFdgx
Every day, every day, the same internal argument. Wasn't it time I moved on?522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI1WLO7vWaO
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.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtEx2LTHIsA
But that night kept calling her back. The power she had felt when a flame formed in her hands.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpt7u9hLsnD
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.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0e05h1o9pf
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.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkFRyIvY0gy
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.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfdmenIMMdv
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 -522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ487Us4nALr
There was a reason why magic was called magic. It didn't exist.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTAd4o25XOX
But how did that old saying go? Magic is only magic until it's understood?522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEZSOGlXNMp
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.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK25SCyIVo9
It's time to leave these things behind.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxdoLXgjcVf
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.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrRsisE2Lz9
'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.'522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3ZBMJxdzup
'Which is why you always taught me magic in the tunnels. Right.'522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSIv5gUTA4V
The older man clapped his apprentice on the shoulder. 'You're fast. That's good.'522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmR484wrW5m
ding. ding. ding.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjkPIhXyG3b
The elevator stopped 40 metres below ground - the equivalent of 12 floors below basement. 522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ59XP4WCgut
'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.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9bSxlzLtJr
'Hello?' His voice reverberated in the black hollow surrounding him.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ21aYP2dIiC
The sound of fingers snapping, and a candelabra burst into radiance, revealing the table of hooded figures seated at a table beneath.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm2VmNj0yaX
'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.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbS3pHvFJYX
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!522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKmkih58XK5
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.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxvg6nTYk6C
Hughes gazed patiently at the door, reminiscing about all the lessons with Xavier, hoping that he would perform the trials flawlessly.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkQJq26IrCH
A stifled moan from behind broke him out of his reverie.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ47hyT1IMXr
'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.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkcMNMGCzVO
Hughes giggled to himself at what he was fully aware was a terrible joke - these people were Bound and gagged. Bound by the Bind.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMrowDyeFUq
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.522Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDnguvaU5Zu
His son should be coming anytime now.
and then Add to home screen.