Magic, Christine realized, was a dangerous thing.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT8LHBCe1Gz
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.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡddr0t5RhzC
'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.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNfN4OhWtpf
'Please! They're still in there...'
Christine woke.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmLztZm9LJU
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.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSPe0hPrzAL
It's funny, isn't it, she thinks grimly, as she gets dressed, that I can never blame myself for what happened.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ3yp8tIzSq
You killed them!840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpMiEddwKg8
I was eight. I had no idea what I was messing with.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlZHRiCXE3A
Every day, every day, the same internal argument. Wasn't it time I moved on?840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQcUOq7lieQ
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.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ59XQPWFq43
But that night kept calling her back. The power she had felt when a flame formed in her hands.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvTu3j24Yii
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.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ18BzvQ3yhO
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.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfMl5IxZ89b
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.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP503tGTggN
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 -840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRGibCvnGtR
There was a reason why magic was called magic. It didn't exist.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjZXiB1uzeU
But how did that old saying go? Magic is only magic until it's understood?840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJckWSFVG8T
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.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHEEwAAYi4x
It's time to leave these things behind.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCRohtxNe1B
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.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQaotOdsiOR
'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.'840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY71wDn32XC
'Which is why you always taught me magic in the tunnels. Right.'840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV4ZTVPswdJ
The older man clapped his apprentice on the shoulder. 'You're fast. That's good.'840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbhhCHT180G
ding. ding. ding.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBXTdP9hZ8R
The elevator stopped 40 metres below ground - the equivalent of 12 floors below basement. 840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡColCMFhfEk
'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.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf4Et12ypLG
'Hello?' His voice reverberated in the black hollow surrounding him.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ14bTQi9HVL
The sound of fingers snapping, and a candelabra burst into radiance, revealing the table of hooded figures seated at a table beneath.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtRo7Q5CAlb
'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.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbGYJ0J28ya
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!840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCJ2bxdZfD1
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.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyiJHBb4tVx
Hughes gazed patiently at the door, reminiscing about all the lessons with Xavier, hoping that he would perform the trials flawlessly.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMlxdoo4svu
A stifled moan from behind broke him out of his reverie.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHnVMNZ840O
'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.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjeibblEuKc
Hughes giggled to himself at what he was fully aware was a terrible joke - these people were Bound and gagged. Bound by the Bind.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2a8G7XUOTr
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.840Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOiSfeUeR8h
His son should be coming anytime now.
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