Magic, Christine realized, was a dangerous thing.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWRDOAR2yRj
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.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuWcwrAcjUA
'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.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS9q1P3JLpZ
'Please! They're still in there...'
Christine woke.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡygcJ20FdrK
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.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP8fiWIgsdg
It's funny, isn't it, she thinks grimly, as she gets dressed, that I can never blame myself for what happened.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNjHRmY8IDY
You killed them!750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ04tFsJEytI
I was eight. I had no idea what I was messing with.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJxHHfdcqW6
Every day, every day, the same internal argument. Wasn't it time I moved on?750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPE9MfiKYHh
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.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSQuhWjufUB
But that night kept calling her back. The power she had felt when a flame formed in her hands.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0IHa060DEN
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.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1tYoGGTcYl
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.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRgIu6N51zI
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.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTDSpvkvGlE
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 -750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyPeixIRR5M
There was a reason why magic was called magic. It didn't exist.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE7k4DBNPmk
But how did that old saying go? Magic is only magic until it's understood?750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4x5xFoS8JS
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.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSlTzgeFm65
It's time to leave these things behind.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmPF4XWSUwb
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.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjxywNwCnqR
'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.'750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6xsJruDFo5
'Which is why you always taught me magic in the tunnels. Right.'750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCrnRzLqcmr
The older man clapped his apprentice on the shoulder. 'You're fast. That's good.'750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7P0UCo8X29
ding. ding. ding.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw8PNsoFNGH
The elevator stopped 40 metres below ground - the equivalent of 12 floors below basement. 750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOVsWGe4H1q
'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.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbT0nBHhIZY
'Hello?' His voice reverberated in the black hollow surrounding him.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcTerZAynVs
The sound of fingers snapping, and a candelabra burst into radiance, revealing the table of hooded figures seated at a table beneath.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1gLK5l8rd6
'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.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkCOmNqRmwp
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!750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfYLAy4NPk2
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.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqEUpVvhZuP
Hughes gazed patiently at the door, reminiscing about all the lessons with Xavier, hoping that he would perform the trials flawlessly.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpGDozC2etp
A stifled moan from behind broke him out of his reverie.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLiR1hYwNwJ
'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.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqvMXePRzTO
Hughes giggled to himself at what he was fully aware was a terrible joke - these people were Bound and gagged. Bound by the Bind.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCA0Hor8uAR
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.750Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtI1UVWWpWj
His son should be coming anytime now.
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