Elana examines the alchemical supplies. There are rather a lot, and some very rare materials.

"Find something?"

"Don't know for sure - one of these might be it, though?" She brings the candidate books over.

"Let's see." She flips through some of the books, pausing halfway through the second.

"...She thinks there is a power, or set of powers I suppose, that enable the use of soul gems. Calls them the Ideal Masters and was... working out how to contact them directly."

"So they might be on the other side of that portal?"

"Assuming they exist." She flips forward to the end of the entries. "That's where the portal is intended to go, anyway."

"So an experimental portal to a place that may or may not exist... Sounds like a fun time."

She flips back a couple pages. "I think I could recreate this if I had to..."

"If the portal closes?"

Nod.

"-Ah. It seems the portal can't be used by anyone with an entire soul."

" - I'm actually unsure if that'd exclude me, 'entire' sounds like a weird concept to apply to souls."

"Souls are weird."

Hug?

Sure.

"I don't know. To say for certain I'd need time to look into this, what's she's written- But that only gives her time to entrench herself."

"Yeah."

"What definitely allows you through?"

"I was sacrificed to the daedric lord Molag Bal. He- has a claim on me."

She tightens her hug, leaning her head into Elana's shoulder. "Well, next big project can be breaking that claim."

"But - does that mean someone else can hold part of your soul, and it'll count for the portal?"

"Possibly."

Nuzzle. "So you can get through, and - currently I maybe can't."

"That about sums it up."

She frowns. "I don't want to ditch you to go into that alone."

"...Can you take some of my soul?"

"A soul trap is all or nothing. Unless- ...Maybe."

Nuzzle. "I trust you, if you think you can."

"I'm not sure I trust me. Not in the next..." She checks the gems powering the portal. "Twenty minutes."

"And if we let it run down, and activated it later, after you're more sure... It'll be riskier for us on the other side?"

"Probably?" She flaps a hand a little. "Valerica is very good at convincing people to do her dirty work. I have no idea how that translates to unknown god-like entities in an unknown plane of existence. Sucking some of your soul out would weaken you, at the least."