Magic, Christine realized, was a dangerous thing.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4b8NQDhNzh
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.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡous7qTi6sk
'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.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPva1E4ng4S
'Please! They're still in there...'
Christine woke.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLuF1uV07y3
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.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl8S2UrtOKB
It's funny, isn't it, she thinks grimly, as she gets dressed, that I can never blame myself for what happened.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNAW9GDOOD1
You killed them!781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCdMSEg7Omj
I was eight. I had no idea what I was messing with.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgeD8zssscK
Every day, every day, the same internal argument. Wasn't it time I moved on?781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTHyGjtoYa8
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.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5PwcxVau5q
But that night kept calling her back. The power she had felt when a flame formed in her hands.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyLWPHaK600
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.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtuaMZ4HttX
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.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7n513ANLOy
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.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbPlfUktxfe
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 -781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVoIWHpqTmL
There was a reason why magic was called magic. It didn't exist.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeBbdBiAl4M
But how did that old saying go? Magic is only magic until it's understood?781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSil8z1rMsY
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.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLIkcOMbnM0
It's time to leave these things behind.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSwjllvKSqx
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.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3RlH7vWix1
'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.'781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKzi3wwzLwR
'Which is why you always taught me magic in the tunnels. Right.'781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3JNfrO82km
The older man clapped his apprentice on the shoulder. 'You're fast. That's good.'781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4NSqLy64F8
ding. ding. ding.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWgurol5sOg
The elevator stopped 40 metres below ground - the equivalent of 12 floors below basement. 781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9CNYHeUhEv
'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.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMX196YIW8B
'Hello?' His voice reverberated in the black hollow surrounding him.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6L1VSTgwth
The sound of fingers snapping, and a candelabra burst into radiance, revealing the table of hooded figures seated at a table beneath.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0HoEWFTP4W
'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.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOfxCoaJVq6
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!781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtjT9MNcqTO
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.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpA2X9oavd0
Hughes gazed patiently at the door, reminiscing about all the lessons with Xavier, hoping that he would perform the trials flawlessly.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTGQlONyQdi
A stifled moan from behind broke him out of his reverie.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXdOyinxfm3
'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.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgonbr54p0L
Hughes giggled to himself at what he was fully aware was a terrible joke - these people were Bound and gagged. Bound by the Bind.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEK84R6ltYj
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.781Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp1aeqHd0po
His son should be coming anytime now.
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