Magic, Christine realized, was a dangerous thing.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPEpVy0BxEz
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.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6DjOY9fpPY
'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.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoLeOjo5AlU
'Please! They're still in there...'
Christine woke.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡszIVdZ3UZ0
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.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZWxib0Vkp6
It's funny, isn't it, she thinks grimly, as she gets dressed, that I can never blame myself for what happened.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuWRFCI3uCX
You killed them!852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUBCYdYJOK1
I was eight. I had no idea what I was messing with.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8jvN21LWjV
Every day, every day, the same internal argument. Wasn't it time I moved on?852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡThfcQM3rO6
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.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzLxJqOApPA
But that night kept calling her back. The power she had felt when a flame formed in her hands.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFXfufjcxTN
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.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgdq7R8kUlu
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.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYNFrC1Qoqj
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.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFNRZF5ZAY4
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 -852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu4eQOQX7oZ
There was a reason why magic was called magic. It didn't exist.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtJLvUsuMvf
But how did that old saying go? Magic is only magic until it's understood?852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3k1O7CXeQg
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.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRnHKzYqjm7
It's time to leave these things behind.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoM1V4r3a7o
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.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVgArEz1A68
'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.'852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡayapiQm85X
'Which is why you always taught me magic in the tunnels. Right.'852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe3jMnm7461
The older man clapped his apprentice on the shoulder. 'You're fast. That's good.'852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN0AKUIKUSr
ding. ding. ding.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFJzS4E9quS
The elevator stopped 40 metres below ground - the equivalent of 12 floors below basement. 852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1VJVF4oJzG
'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.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡffzqRH7GTm
'Hello?' His voice reverberated in the black hollow surrounding him.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrofiJTKO91
The sound of fingers snapping, and a candelabra burst into radiance, revealing the table of hooded figures seated at a table beneath.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcWK3d9WbIg
'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.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIiupzZ9RqJ
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!852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeCYGyGakuF
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.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2sCWFnQaQG
Hughes gazed patiently at the door, reminiscing about all the lessons with Xavier, hoping that he would perform the trials flawlessly.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyk0gUXcWU1
A stifled moan from behind broke him out of his reverie.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn13pSHeapQ
'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.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXTbhlk8Mle
Hughes giggled to himself at what he was fully aware was a terrible joke - these people were Bound and gagged. Bound by the Bind.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn1T6sYt1Nf
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.852Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYsjC257wqf
His son should be coming anytime now.
and then Add to home screen.