Kael drifted off in a haze of fumes.

It hadn’t been exactly what she’d intended to do, but the Blessed Mugwort and the Watery Cress together ought to create a long and dreamless, ageless and still sleep, even if she’d been aiming for more of a quiet watching throughout the ages. Something must have gotten in the mix – probably that last batch of adventurers.

Kael dreamed of a time when such idiots didn’t come traipsing through, just because her tower was black, or just because they’d heard that she was generous with the potions that they needed.

She closed her eyes. This hadn’t been meant to put her to sleep. It really ought to bother her, she thought.

But it was such a nice dreamy sleep. And she couldn’t hear the stupid adventurers anymore.

She woke. She felt stiff and hazy, a little bit lost. It had been a very nice dream, the sort of dream where people came and pounded on her door and couldn’t get in. It was the sort of dream where the elves who had scorned her needed her help yet again, and she wasn’t there, so she didn’t even need to say no. She could just… not help, no guilt, no problem.

She rubbed her eyes and found they were covered with a thick layer of dust. Dust. That had meant to be a nap, even if a long one, not-

Kael sat up. Her tower room was just the same, stones where they belonged, potions covered in a thick layer of dust and grime. Everything was exactly as she had left it, except…

Except the walls were covered in a haze. The window was covered in blue smoke. The doorway was completely obscured.

Well, then. She had done it, if even by accident. She had taken her tower out of time and out of space.

The problem was, she supposed, why had she woken up at all? She had put no end time into the spell, because she had expected to end it herself when she was ready to move on.

She stretched and stood. Her body felt the same. Her robes looked the same – they had not mouldered away, although the dust had worried her for a bit. Imagine sleeping on forever while everything rotted away from her! Imagine rotting away herself while she slept!

She wandered to the windows and door, but the haze wouldn’t clear. Well, she wasn’t a wizard for nothing; she was going to have to clear the spell herself and hope that an unknown-length nap had not rusted away her skills.

Seventeen bottles later, one lit flame, and an incantation that sounded right and felt a little like nails ripping through her throat, she had eliminated the fog. Pleased and yet worried, Kael walked to her window to look over the countryside. She pushed away the heavy, thickly-spelled curtains.

She was greeted with grey and silver, white and black, noise and more noise. Her tower overlooked dozens and dozens of other towers, some of them nearly as tall as her proud and wild Black Tower. There were people everywhere, dressed in strange fashion and moving quickly about.

Kael sat down in her favorite armchair. How long had she slept?

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