Magic, Christine realized, was a dangerous thing.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFnTLdJNfMk
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.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡENkQRWcRBQ
'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.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQm71ExkirF
'Please! They're still in there...'
Christine woke.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbWneA7tMF5
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.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRcOX01sVhS
It's funny, isn't it, she thinks grimly, as she gets dressed, that I can never blame myself for what happened.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq7ps5Ogp2h
You killed them!837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIG52lGZJK2
I was eight. I had no idea what I was messing with.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdV2qFybOUH
Every day, every day, the same internal argument. Wasn't it time I moved on?837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfWrdyWttyK
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.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6MfYA9uuSx
But that night kept calling her back. The power she had felt when a flame formed in her hands.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpqAenFVI3v
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.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJkca6P6r1Y
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.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnOJKLOSIzR
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.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcKNooOSf0i
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 -837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVJiDv4MxBa
There was a reason why magic was called magic. It didn't exist.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmxn1KOmZvV
But how did that old saying go? Magic is only magic until it's understood?837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQY4g5PX8Mj
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.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ3EK7nh5pF
It's time to leave these things behind.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfz39gmJsQG
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.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnDkT2ajy7C
'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.'837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjFnfWAHrP5
'Which is why you always taught me magic in the tunnels. Right.'837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRTdgqCSR8U
The older man clapped his apprentice on the shoulder. 'You're fast. That's good.'837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5qBGqLZILF
ding. ding. ding.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDVvklOcRUt
The elevator stopped 40 metres below ground - the equivalent of 12 floors below basement. 837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdqfxprLYRl
'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.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMbCF0XfR0t
'Hello?' His voice reverberated in the black hollow surrounding him.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0xAXXhvTco
The sound of fingers snapping, and a candelabra burst into radiance, revealing the table of hooded figures seated at a table beneath.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRmqixg9lVH
'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.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡht65IEdXwq
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!837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAf2FLy6FjI
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.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx84fIJJGY8
Hughes gazed patiently at the door, reminiscing about all the lessons with Xavier, hoping that he would perform the trials flawlessly.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF7NruRz27j
A stifled moan from behind broke him out of his reverie.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ87aaHSjXOk
'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.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ66XTn3677r
Hughes giggled to himself at what he was fully aware was a terrible joke - these people were Bound and gagged. Bound by the Bind.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmMr5A049dM
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.837Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmZ9GUlyjIV
His son should be coming anytime now.
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