ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

So I finally got to level 10 of the High Peaks losing my last spare life on the way up... I find the Sanctum Portal and began wondering if I could make it and get my first win but then when I try to enter it and press "<" all I get is a message saying something like "There is no way out of this level here". Also I don't get the option to "Change level" when right clicking my character while standing on the portal.

Tried reloading the game, didn't work.
Tried recalling with the Rod, didn't work because the Rod has no effect.
Tried teleporting to Angolwen, didn't work the spell fizzles.
Tried mapping the whole level to see if I'm missing something, didn't work.

So I'm out of options, I hope there's a way to fix this.

Use the Orb of Many ways.

Exactly. It isn't a staircase, it's a portal. How do you use portals ?

Well now I feel kinda dumb lol. But to my defense I got in the Fearscape Invasion Portal using "<" .

I finally got in and killed both mages and Aeryn lived to tell the story .

Thank you guys, I guess it wasn't a bug after all.

I kinda think that portals should all be treated as stairs, so you can use them with ">", as long as you have the Orb. I've also done this many times