I must have lost consciousness on impact. When I came to, I was lying on my back and was completely disoriented. My whole left side hurt, especially my shoulder, I must have hit it when I flew out of the portal. I lay there waiting for the pain to subside a bit and stared at the clouds in the sky, which were just as sluggish as my thoughts right now. Then it slowly dawned on me. Clouds? If I was in the open air, then this was certainly not the magister’s residence. Where had I landed? I sat up abruptly, the bruised shoulder sending a fresh wave of pain through my body.

I looked to my right and involuntarily jerked back: a chasm opened up beside me. The stone floor I was sitting on ended an arm’s length away at an irregular fault line, with nothing but air behind it. On the left side, about three steps further, waist-high wall remains rose. The curvature indicated that the room had been round. Was I in a mage tower or rather in the ruins of a mage tower? Groaning in pain, I stood up and looked around.

Not much was left of the top level of the tower. The room must have once been a good ten meters in diameter, now maybe a quarter of it was still there. The ceiling was completely gone, and so were most of the walls. The rest of the stone floor was cluttered with debris, luckily I was able to land on an area that wasn't too messy. No, I was lucky to land on the ground at all and not fall into the depths. Next to the remains of the wall on the ground was a black stone frame that looked exactly like the portal frame in Annabel’s house. The frame was filled with the dust and dirt of centuries, and a human silhouette stood out in the center. This must be where it threw me out. I shook my head, how did the dead thing even work?

Carefully, I stepped to the edge of the still intact floor and looked down. The height was considerable, the tower must have been 5-6 stories high. It was located in a small valley surrounded by mountains on all sides. On the ground around the tower, a huge lava lake was spreading. The molten rock glowed an intense red-orange, and the heat could be felt even up here. Only a narrow winding path connected the tower to the land behind the lava. A movement caught my attention and I blinked in disbelief: a creature appeared in the middle of the deadly hot lake. It appeared to be an animal, swimming leisurely toward the shore. How could this be, according to the color of the lava, the temperature should be 800-900 degrees!

Only now did I notice that there were other creatures on the shores of the lake. Some were lying there and seemed to enjoy the warmth, others were busily engaged in unknown activities. They had to be magical creatures, any animal of flesh and blood would have burned to ashes long ago. Externally, they looked like large lizards, around two meters long, covered with black, red patterned scales. Were they fire salamanders? I wasn’t sure, but decided to call them that temporarily. I wonder if they were dangerous.

To find out, I had to come downstairs. I took another closer look around. Hidden behind a pile of rubble was the spiral staircase leading down. Although it was also partially destroyed, I managed to get down one floor. Here the walls were better preserved, there were only two large breakthroughs in them. If there had once been any furnishings here, all the items had fallen victim to the weather over the many years. I went to the next level.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

This must have been the living quarters of the tower’s inhabitants. The walls were intact, only the windows had been pressed inward by the blast, the remains of the window frames lying on the floor amidst numerous shards of glass. The former carpet was ruined by rainwater running from above, but the large bed, artfully nestled into the curve of the outer wall, stood away from the windows and still looked very inviting. The table standing between two windows, on the other hand, made a rotten impression, as did the three chairs with high backs that stood around it. Against the opposite wall stood a dresser made of light brown wood, next to it a padded armchair. The stairs leading down were covered with a trapdoor.

After a moment’s consideration, I marched to the bed, pulled off the dusty blanket, and tossed it to the floor, raising a proper cloud of dust. A vacuum cleaner spell would have been very helpful at this point. I took off my belt with the dagger and quiver and was about to put it on the nightstand next to the bed when I remembered the storage ring. In case I had to leave quickly, it was safer to store the equipment there. I activated the ring and placed the belt in the hidden chamber. Although I couldn’t see the items inside, I knew exactly what was there: a pair of shoes that I had slipped in on a test basis and then forgotten to take out, six unspecified books, and the belt with the dagger and quiver. A really great gadget, this ring!

I grabbed two of the chairs and placed them on the trapdoor so that no one could visit me by surprise, and lay down on the bed with a comfortable sigh. How I had missed this feeling in the past few days!

My left shoulder still hurt quite a bit, and I wondered if my magic skills could somehow be used to heal it. It was worth a try, especially since there weren’t many options to try. I made the sign for life appear over my shoulder and carefully activated it. A wave of refreshment spread from the spot and eased the pain. When I moved my left arm afterwards, it was still painful, but much better. I repeated the spell two more times, after which the pain was barely noticeable. Satisfied, I stretched out in bed. Despite the old age, the mattress was still nice and soft, the ancient mages knew something about comfort.

I thought about my situation. At the moment there was no immediate danger, but all in all, it did not look good at all. I was in an unknown area, without food or drink, surrounded by a lava lake populated by strange magical beings. How was I going to get back to Orthok or get to the inhabited world? I had no idea yet, but the bed was too comfortable to worry seriously. Following the motto that one is wiser in the morning, I decided to take a nap.

Sometime in the middle of the night, I woke up. Except for the sound of wind in the window openings, it was still and quiet, the glowing lava outside cast reddish reflections of light on the walls and ceiling, it almost looked like there was a fireplace on in the room. This impression was reinforced by the dry heat. I considered undressing, but then didn’t feel like getting up and just undid my shirt buttons, then fell asleep again.