"Ancient power source of some kind. I had to ferry it up to the lab when I first got here."

"That's kind of promising, isn't it? If Sheikah tech runs on normal things like fire."

"I guess. I really don't know the details."

"But you will soon!"

"I wonder. The best use of my time isn't trying to understand tech, being perfectly honest. I'm not good at it. I'm good at fighting."

"You'll still need to be the one to copy books in Hylian. Whenever we get there, anyway. That might not be for a while."

"Whenever the door does come back, I'll make sure to get some good books, for sure."

"I wonder how the Sheikah organized their books. Maybe we'll get lucky and there'll be a book called How To Create Sheikah Tech From Stuff You Find In The Untouched Wilderness."

Link just laughs.

It's a long walk, and uphill too, but not that long.

Though the slightly-incoherent warning signs posted on the upwards path might be a bit worrying.

Not worrying enough to turn them away. When they're there he looks at Link, not sure whether to walk in or knock or some entirely different thing.

Link knocks, and the door is answered by a - small child?

"Link! You're back! With a friend? Have you got more ancient materials? I think I could upgrade your bomb rune still!"

If that were a reason not to take her seriously Link would have said so.

He lets Link take the lead again. He isn't actually sure what he's doing.

"Hi, Purah! Actually, not really, but Valanda here is from another world, has foreign magic, and I'm sure he'd love to talk about ancient tech with you."

"What kind of magic? How does it work? Is it teachable or intrinsic?"

(Link summarizes Valanda's defense magic.)

"That violates several of what I thought were essential axioms! I'll have to throw away years of research! This is great!"

"It might make more sense to say your magic follows those axioms and mine doesn't. I used to work in magic research, I'll answer your questions if you answer mine."

"There are properties of that sound like they may violate rules that are thought were essential to all possible magic. A scientist is happy to be proven wrong, however. Come on, come in!"

The interior of the lab is... A mess. Weird arcane tools are scattered around, but most of the mess is a ton - probably literally - of books and sheafs of notes.

"What did you think was essential to all possible magic that I might be violating?"

"The principle of conservation! I want to watch you defend something under a mana-scope to be sure but it sounds like it doesn't actually tire you out or consume anything to enchant a thing! Are there any circumstances or places where you would be unable to enchant an object? Magically unable, not like, you can't focus on it well enough."

"No, it's eating something. If you maintained an effect all day you'd be a little hungrier than if you didn't do any magic. Not by a lot but it has a cost. Maybe a couple handfuls of pecans for twelve hours, but that's just a guess and it'd depend on how much I was doing, too. I couldn't enchant something another defense mage had warded against having magic done to it."

"But you can make permanently defended objects. Are those eating something?"

"One-time cost to cast the magic. They're not draining me afterward. We don't know that they're permanent, we just know there are some from centuries ago that don't show any signs of failing yet."

"I wanna look at 'em under a mana-scope! Snap! Come and do one for me?"

"If you'll tell me what a mana-scope is and how it works I'll enchant something under it for you."

Purah is happy to explain mana-visualizing spells baked into her scope! It's an expensive and delicate piece of equipment. Mana flows one way or another whenever any local magic occurs, and analyzing the patterns helps them study magic.

(Link says that she's going to take a nap outside, it's nice weather for a nap.)

That's completely baffling and he doesn't understand it at all. Isn't there a chance someone might see her there? Even up this hill, outside is outside.

The mana-scope, on the other hand, is pretty interesting. He says as much to Purah when he gets done looking at Link like she's grown a second head.

"What would you like me to ward for you?"