Although at first I didn’t think it, no transporting magic was allowed directly in the ruins, so we were forced to hike a handful of miles through the bitter cold mountaintops with Professor Lyra as our guide.  When we reached the top, however, it was all worth it.
Nestled in a bowl-shaped valley between the mountains were monolithic stone structures. Although the ruins began far, far below, the bottom of the valley was completely fenced by the stone giants around us. Here, near the top of a smaller mountain, was an expansive bridge that led to a grand opening into the ruins. Countless towers, sub-buildings, and bridges connecting to other parts of the mountains eventually all met with the main citadel right in the center, with its highest point piercing the clouds above. With the mountains shielding us, a portion of the wind had disappeared, but it was still freezing.
As we crossed the bridge, Professor Lyra told us how the ruins use to house a large population of the most powerful magical entities. Apparently, it held not only humanoid magical wielders but also a large amount of elemental, fey, and even celestial beings to act as a sort of meeting grounds on our plane of existence. The entire site was named after Morthos, a human mage of tremendous power who supposedly had the palace built as both a place to discuss treaties with these interdimensional beings as well as a peace grounds where every kind of entity was treated with equality as a sign of good will. How the site was ruined is unknown.
Coming to the end of the bridge, we were met with two colossal stone doors flanked by statues of equal size. Judging by the bellowing robes and staffs of the statues, they probably depicted ancient wizards at one point but one was completely covered in wooden scaffolding, and the other was so weathered and cracked, along with sporting a headless neck, it was difficult to be sure they weren’t just generic guardians. A single man, dressed in an ornate grey robe stood in front of the doors. His beard was as grey as his robes and reached down just below his neck.
“Students,” Professor Lyra said, turning back to us, “This is Grandmaster Yolfar, Archmage of the Grey Monks. He has allowed us to tour the ruins while they take a break from repairs.”
“Indeed,” Yolfar announced as he stepped forward, “But remember the rules. First off, absolutely no magic allowed. We’ve been unable to locate the source thus far, but there is an arcane aura about this place. Secondly, do not enter any closed doors. We have taken the liberty to opening up a touring path for you, so you best follow it. And lastly, if by some feat of cunning, perception, or plain stupidity you find yourself in possession of a magical relic found within these halls, keep it safe and deliver it to us as soon as you can. Though if you follow my previous rules, you shouldn’t have to worry about that.”
“You need not worry sir,” the professor replied, “I’m sure that all my students will adhere to your rules.”
She said this while glancing at a few students, who were known for getting into trouble, including Trivasta. The Archmage simply nodded and placed his hand upon the doors. With a brief pulsing sound, subtly carved lines appeared on the door. The pattern they made was indiscernible to me; perhaps they took the form of some ancient language. After a short while, the glowing stopped, and the doors slowly began to grind inwards.
A warm air crept from inside the ruins as we made our way in. The Yolfar didn’t close the doors but inside was still so warm. Pillars surrounded us in this room and stretched upward to a high ceiling. There were doors leaning here and there along the sides. At the far end of the room was another set of double doors. Although these were smaller than the main entrance, they were carved from what appeared to be solid gold. A human man was presented in the middle of the doors, his hands outstretched. Surrounding him were a manner of all beings: elementals, dragons, dwarves, etc.
“This is the entrance to the main citadel,” the Archmage spoke up, “The interior still hasn’t been completely explored. Something prevents us from progressing through, and many a wizard has gotten lost in the illusionary halls, never to return. Of all these rooms, this one should never be explored by anyone until we can dispel the enchantments. This is where I leave you, for I have other matters. Just remember the rules and you may explore for as long as you desire.”
The professor bid farewell to Yolfar and led our group to an open door on the right side of the room, where a dim orange light was pouring in. The tour consisted of a lot of backtracking when we reached a room where no other doors were open to us so we saw a lot of the same things. Judging by the carvings, as well as a few historians present that were permitted to explore as well, most of what we saw were living quarters for different types of entities. There were a few exceptions, however. We did find ourselves in a bath house larger than the dining hall in the university, a courtyard that appeared to be used for all manners of magical practice, a garden that had long since wilted and was reduced to the stone decorations, and a circular room filled with niches along the wall. This room, we were told, was once a relay for portals that led to different planes of existence, where anything and anyone could come and go as they pleased. It was here that we stopped to eat the meal we had all packed.
It would probably be reaching dusk in a few hours but we had prepared ahead of time for a return hike in the dark. There was still so much left to explore, and professor Lyra didn’t seem keen on stopping soon. As people began to pack up the remnants of their meals, Trivasta sat down next to me.
“You were right,” she said sarcastically, “This place is so interesting.”
“Well,” I replied, “I think so.”
“Come on! We’ve barely seen anything! It’s just a bunch of old rooms. I’m more interested in what’s behind those big gold doors.”
“I’ll tell you exactly what’s behind them. Powerful enchantments, no means of escape, and certain death. You’ve gotten me into bad situations before but there’s no way we’re going in there.”
“Aren’t you even the least bit curious?”
“Of course I am, but I also value my life.”
“So you won’t go with me?”
“Wait, you’re not seriously planning on breaking into those doors are you?”
“Of course I am, it could be the only thing good about this trip. Look, I’m definitely getting in there and I’m just offering you a chance to go as well.”
“Not going to happen, Trist.”
“Fine, don’t go. Have fun wandering around the rest of the bedrooms and empty libraries.”
“I will. If you want to get yourself killed then go ahead. See you never I guess.”
Trivasta just glared at me before standing up and walking away with a huff. At this point, the group was beginning to pour out of the portal chamber. After a few more twists and turns, we passed by the foyer to enter another open door in the hall. Taking a moment to drink in the history behind this one room, I started to drift behind in the sea of my fellow students who simply passed by me. Just as I was about to enter the same door they were, something clasped over my mouth and pulled me back. I tried to struggle but before I could even blink, the world around me darkened.

It was only for a second before everything was bright again, but I wasn’t in the same place. As my captor released me I turned around. A pair of crimson lips had been tightened into a devious smile.
“What did you do?!” I exclaimed.
“Dimension door,” Trivasta replied, “Welcome to the main citadel you buzzkill.”
I wanted to yell, to be furious, but my eyes began to wander. I was standing in a grand hall, much larger than the foyer. A maze of stairs, bridges, and hallways lay in front of me, crisscrossing over a dark chasm below. My feet moved toward the long balcony that extended at least a hundred feet or more on either side of me, with stairs that went up and down in uniform places to new levels. It was glorious, a whole new part of the ruins that dwarfed everything else we had seen. All of it was lit by large glowing crystals that sequentially lined the walls. I imagined there were some on the ceiling, but there was no visible ceiling at all.
In that moment, awe kept me standing there and wanting more. Soon, however, I shook my head and faced Trivasta again.
“I told you I didn’t want to come here. Do you know how dangerous this is? We’ve already broken two of the three rules we were given!”
“Calm down Aaron, I just wanted to see if I could convince you to tag along. Just dimension door out of here, no harm done.”
I opened my mouth to say something but after a beat, I just exhaled with a growl and pushed past her. Dimension door was easy, I just had to think of where I wanted to be, concentrate for a second, and…
*CRACK*
In a flash of violet I was flung backward. I slammed against the balcony, letting out a short cry of agony. Then I began to tilt back. Panic filled me as I tried to right myself but the muscles in my back tightened and I could move. I looked downward. I would fall thirty, maybe forty feet before I hit the first staircase. If I was unlucky, I would roll down for who knows how long and end up…somewhere below. My feet began to lift and my head fell lower, and lower, and lower….
Then two arms slammed into me, pulling me back over the ledge. I remained still but soon I was twisted back and thrown onto the floor under the balcony rail. Trivasta stood over me, genuine worry on her face.
“Are you okay? What was that?”
I tried to speak but nothing came out save for a few forced breaths and strained groans. My back was still tensed and my arms had twisted into strained positions. I couldn’t move.
“Oh gods…you’re really hurt.”
Trivasta rolled me onto my stomach, which forced out a few more solid yelps. She then placed her hands on my back and a warmth filled my body. My breathing became more normal and my muscles relaxed again. After a few breaths, I felt as though I could speak again.
“Spell…didn’t work. Backfired. Never happened before.”
After a few more seconds, Trivasta’s hands left my back. I was breathing normally again but I could hear her panting heavily.
“You okay,” I asked.
“Fine. It’s just, that took a lot more out of me than it usually does. Healing spells aren’t normally that exhausting.”
“I think something here is messing with us, messing with our magic.”
“Yeah, that guy said that there’s some magical aura about this place.”
“What are we going to do?”
“I…I don’t know. I don’t think we can teleport out of this place. And I tried simply opening the doors when we first arrived but they’re magically sealed. We’re stuck here.”
It took a few tries but Trivasta finally got me back up on my feet. I still had to lean on her to walk for a while but I was no longer in devastating pain. After a bit of “diplomatic” discussion, we decided the best way to go was forward. Avoiding as many stairs as possible, we stuck to the bridges and hallways into different chambers. I didn’t have time to appreciate the ruins anymore so with each room that had a door, we practically ran for it. Still, after a while the rooms started to feel familiar.
“We’re going in circles,” I said, “No matter where we go this place is always the same.”
“Well, let’s just try to find the doors again. We should backtrack.”
“We’ve backtracked several times now but everything keeps changing, leadings us back to the same set of rooms.”
“This can’t be it. We can’t be lost. It’s just some sort of trick. We have to keep moving.”
“Trist, this place is supposed to mess with us. We’re never going to get out.”
“We can’t be trapped. This just can’t be the end for us.”
Trivasta’s eyes began to glow and her breathing pace increased. Her fists clenched and around them, red light started to form. I raised up my arm and tried to stop her but before I could, she let out a yell and shot out the red energy at the wall she was facing. Dust and debris flew everywhere so I closed my eyes and covered my mouth in reaction. After the sound of raining stone ceased, I opened my eyes. Something was off. The room felt…clearer, as if it were a lens that had been wiped. A fresh hole has been blasted in the side of the room and Trivasta was knelt down, her arm supporting her and her back rising rapidly with her breath.
“Are you okay,” I asked, walking to her side.
“Fine, I guess. I…I don’t know what came over me I just…”
“These ruins are messing with us. Come on, we’ll find a way out of here.”
Just then, a dim purple light flooded the room. I helped Trivasta up and we walked through the hole. Through it, we found ourselves in a massive chamber. The room was circular, with a celling that stretched up to a gold plated dome and a massive chasm fenced off in the middle. Niches all over the walls contained statues depicted a matter of all beings. At the opposite side of the room was a podium, carved in the shape of a clawed dragon’s paw, grasped a glittering purple orb. Without a word, Trivasta and I made our way to the podium. The orb was quite large, it would take both hands to fully hold it. A subtle pattern swirled in the center. Trivasta’s hand started drifting towards it.
“Wait,” I said, “Are we sure this is a good idea? We don’t know what this thing is.”
“There’s nothing else to do,” Trivasta replied.
As the orb left the podium, I clenched my jaw and waited. Nothing happened, everything was silent. Trivasta looked at me and shrugged. I flashed her a worried look, and we started back towards the hole. Not even five feet from the opening, a rumbling sound filled the room. Jagged stone shot out in the archway, clogging up the hole. Looking up, I saw the statues eyes beginning to glow blue. From one of the statues, carved in the likeness of a dragonborn clad in long robes, a disk of blue energy rocketed towards us. In reaction, I swiped my hands in a large arc and a flash of green energy enveloped my hand. The disc of blue reflected off and burst against the wall.
“Get down,” I yelled.
Focusing my energy, I shot my hands above my head. A field of green domed around an area about ten feet around Trivasta and me. More energy blasts towards us, each one reflecting off the shield. I maintained my concentrating but with each hit, I felt a brief pulse in my body. Then the room began to crack. Shards of granite crashed down on the energy field. A particularly large chunk landed with such force that it knocked me to my knees and left a jagged scar on the side of the field. A river of sweat trickled down my face as I struggled to keep my hands elevated.
“I would just like to point out that this is your fault,” I growled, “I said that going through the only restricted door was a bad idea, but no, you never listen to me.”
I didn’t dare break my concentration to look over my shoulder, but I knew Trivasta was working on something. A flash of neon green was reflecting in the polished stone beneath my feet. Likely she was casting a teleportation spell or perhaps something to strengthen the field. I saw the tower begin to twist in on itself; bricks were sliding from their weakened mortar bonds. A glint of gold from the dome plunged deep into the chasm.
“I thought it would be fine okay,” Trivasta shouted back, “How was I supposed to know that the crystal was that volatile? I had to take it; we’re the first people to ever find an artifact from the ancient realm in this place.”
“Well I knew it was suspicious that the crystal just happened to be sitting on a pedestal out in the open. I mean, thousands of people have explored this place, and yet we’re the ones to get through the cursed wing? It just doesn’t add up to me.”
“Just shut up and let me concentrate,” just then the green she was producing disappeared “Curse it. Something’s preventing us from leaving. It’s obviously not breaking down your field, so we can rule anti-magic spells out.”
A large crash echoed through the walls and the floor began to slope downward. I found it increasingly difficult to maintain my balance as I began to lean backward. I could hear Trivasta stumble and cry out, followed by an electrical buzzing and a heavy grunt.
“Are you alright?” I cried out.
“Fine,” she called back “just slipped. Something crashed through the floor, and now it’s falling apart beneath our feet. How long can you hold this shield?”
Just then something began to moan. I saw periodic bursts of blue light coming from the remaining bricks. Hidden spell lines were being broken as the tower imploded. I wasn’t sure what this meant for us, until a large brick fell on top of the field and exploded in massive blue cloud. The force was just too much, and I crumpled. The shield now flickered with each chunk of debris that hit, growing dimmer and dimmer. I tried to stand and cast another spell, but a shard of stone pierced through the shield with a mighty crash and struck me in the chest. I immediately fell back down, wheezing and struggling to do anything. I slid back faster now until I hit the back of my weakening shield. Then it faded altogether, just like that. Dust and pebbles struck my face, and I slid back even further. My body started to go numb, but I briefly felt something grasp my arm right before my vision went black.

I shot up gasping and coughing. A bucket of dust shot out from my lungs with each ragged breath. My head was pounding, and my chest felt warm and wet. I tried to sit up but immediately slumped back down like a ragdoll.
“Don’t try to move,” a voice said, “I’ve cast some healing spells on you, but something here is draining my mana so I don’t think I did a lot.”
“Trivasta?”
“Yeah, it’s me.”
“I can’t see. What’s going on?”
“We fell through the hole in the floor,” a brief clattering of stone above made her pause. “It wasn’t a long fall, but now there’s a mountain of shattered rock above our heads. Your eyes are swollen. Here, now that you’re awake you can drink this.”
A cold sphere was placed in my hand. My fingers felt a thin glass neck and a metal stopper which had been opened. I brought the bottle to my lips, and the lemony taste of the health potion, a taste I never really liked, flooded my mouth. A warm pulsing took over my body, and I could feel cuts beginning to close and my swollen eyes shrink back to normal. After a few seconds I could open them, and I began to scan everything, from the cramped walls of piled stone to the bloody bindings on my chest. Trivasta was huddled in a corner, staring at a dimly smoldering torch as she clutched her knees. Her crimson skin glinted in the firelight.
“I tried to cast another teleportation spell,” she said. “Drained the rest of my mana, and it didn’t even work. We’re stuck here until we die.”
“Do you still have the crystal?”
“Is that really what you want to say? No more blaming me for this mess, no ‘I told you so?’” tears began to fill her eyes as she talked, “Better get it over with now because I have a feeling it will lose its flavor when we begin to starve! Whatever. The crystal is over there in my bag.”
I rummaged through her linen satchel and pulled out the shimmering purple orb.
“We found this thing on some altar. Why? We weren’t even looking for that chamber. Are we meant to have this thing? It doesn’t look modern anyway, so I highly doubt anyone from our time would have just left it here. What exactly happened before the room started crashing down? What were you doing?”
“I was just looking at it. Thinking about how proud Professor Lyra would have been when we showed it to her. I mean, sure we broke the rules, but we’re the first people to make a discovery like this.”
“Maybe this is a test. Ancient wizards were very cryptic. They loved their riddles and puzzles after all. Finding this thing is just too simple. We didn’t earn it. Now we’re paying the price.”
“What do we do then?
“If we just wait down here, then we don’t deserve to leave. Here, keep it safe. And get back.”
I passed Trivasta the crystal and took a deep breath. I extended my fingers to the furthest “wall” and concentrated. Small shreds of bright red energy began to fill my palm as I pulled back then I shot my arm forward, and a hole blasted in the side of our tomb. I was pushed back by the impact but kept my ground.
“Are you crazy?! You’ll run out of mana or kill yourself before you make a dent in this thing!”
“Maybe, but I’m not giving up. I have one mana potion left in my bag. Take it now and start working on a teleportation spell. Maybe try and find the source of whatever is keeping us here.”
I went back to my work, shooting beams of energy into the divot I created. With each blast the room above us shook and creaked. My breathing became heavy, and I grew tired but after a few minutes I had created a good sized tunnel. I could feel my spells getting weaker, but I refused to stop. If we were going to survive I had to drain every fiber of mana in my being. Just a little further, just a little further. After about an hour or so I felt Trivasta take my hand. I spun around and saw that her free hand was in the process of finishing a teleportation spell. Then in an instant we were back. Not back in the ruins but back at the university, in the dorm rooms. Both of us collapsed on the floor immediately, our breathing heavy.
“Whatever stopped me from doing that before suddenly ended,” said Trivasta. “What do you think happened?”
“We earned our freedom,” I sighed.

As a gamer, dungeon master, and magic enthusiast, Ethan Nelson was destined to be a fantasy writer. Much of his work is sparked from his overactive imagination, but some of it is fueled by the heroic, silly, and sometimes faceplam-worthy moments of his Dungeons and Dragons campaigns. Wherever it comes from, Ethan strives for his works to be epic, deep, and more than a little complicated at times and hopes for it to be on the shelves of the greatest human and non-human libraries.