Magic, Christine realized, was a dangerous thing.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0Viy2a4cY5
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.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd7OewtwJAP
'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.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFutgHV581j
'Please! They're still in there...'
Christine woke.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuagKi3UDIY
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.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡipleMaIkI4
It's funny, isn't it, she thinks grimly, as she gets dressed, that I can never blame myself for what happened.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXZG838LgXH
You killed them!717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ800ab8bmQ1
I was eight. I had no idea what I was messing with.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3glQLw5LuZ
Every day, every day, the same internal argument. Wasn't it time I moved on?717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHFeErPwFbK
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.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSzrYcaLFzU
But that night kept calling her back. The power she had felt when a flame formed in her hands.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ2CO25LAPp
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.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWp3VhAPnXx
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.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlIEpdT75qD
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.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr5p8cTleOa
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 -717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSVFjz9QkzQ
There was a reason why magic was called magic. It didn't exist.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBzzicGEuVG
But how did that old saying go? Magic is only magic until it's understood?717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjynpDAtggv
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.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHtgVRGZIrT
It's time to leave these things behind.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsuEU6Nra5K
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.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvcwSfwbgvK
'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.'717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWSJ86ZqHjt
'Which is why you always taught me magic in the tunnels. Right.'717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLI8mDjhLvZ
The older man clapped his apprentice on the shoulder. 'You're fast. That's good.'717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPq9N5CSQip
ding. ding. ding.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpSAymkeecW
The elevator stopped 40 metres below ground - the equivalent of 12 floors below basement. 717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVjNKBpqxOd
'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.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvuPu7SRCbB
'Hello?' His voice reverberated in the black hollow surrounding him.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlCcrbOn0y2
The sound of fingers snapping, and a candelabra burst into radiance, revealing the table of hooded figures seated at a table beneath.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg3vnHbgNiB
'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.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRgLIwwIg6w
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!717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMZAjncQ6q8
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.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3tJaKKNG8S
Hughes gazed patiently at the door, reminiscing about all the lessons with Xavier, hoping that he would perform the trials flawlessly.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDBy2w1IqH1
A stifled moan from behind broke him out of his reverie.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbWJayPK319
'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.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQrbkUkIfIr
Hughes giggled to himself at what he was fully aware was a terrible joke - these people were Bound and gagged. Bound by the Bind.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoy5QAZDkvK
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.717Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO3cwvnYRBH
His son should be coming anytime now.
然後按「加至主畫面」