Meesei hardly had time to acknowledge Fendros directly, as the process of creating this portal required her complete focus in every instant. Still, she was grateful for any amount of relief she could be given. Her progress was slower than she would have liked, as she had to prioritize keeping the magical backlash to a minimum. Fendros’ help gave her more leeway, but letting out even a fraction of the power she had absorbed in an uncontrolled manner would reduce their flesh to dust in an instant. 

Meesei concentrated on that point above them, the destination for her portal. The power within her Staff was immense, though the energy concentrated at the top of the tower was even greater still. This interference she was working to break through she did not even believe was an intentional defense measure. Merely the aura of whatever was above them was interfering with the finely precise spellcasting that a portal required. Meesei’s hope was to use the sheer, brute force of power within the Staff to stabilize a small area above them. To block out the interference from a small area above them for long enough that she could establish a portal. 

As she tried to coax out more power from the Staff, a surge of magicka struck both herself and Fendros. For just a moment, it felt as if her blood was on fire. She maintained her concentration, but even so, it was not enough to try to stabilize the area one small bit at a time. In terms of its magical aura, the space at the top of the tower was a maelstrom of pure chaos. It was like a hurricane, but one in which she had to try to create the eye herself. To try and grow that area of calm slowly and steadily only led to it collapsing immediately. She had to do it in one effort with the power she had collected. There was enough there for her to accomplish what she needed to do, she just needed to be able to wield it. 

Closing her eyes, Meesei focused on the magicka itself, both in the staff and far above. As she had tried before, she attempted to form a perfect, orderly sphere out of the chaos above. She arranged the edges of the bubble easily enough, but then it came time to try and bring order to the raw magicka in the staff. The spell itself was something she understood, but this was power on a scale even Meesei had never experienced. Taming this power she had stolen from Vile, the power she [i]needed[/i] to break through, was like trying to tame a raging waterfall. When she started to release that energy to order it into a spell, the backlash through her body, despite their best efforts, knocked Fendros off his feet and collapsed her to the ground. She had only scarcely managed to stop the magicka’s release before it killed them both. As she pushed back the pain out of her mind, grabbed the Staff once more, and forced herself back to her knees, the one truth she had been fighting became undeniable to her:

[i]She couldn’t do it.[/i]

No matter Meesei’s magical skill and decades of experience. No matter her willpower and determination. No matter the time her pack, Ri’vashi, and even Molag Bal’s Daedra bought her. No matter the well of energy Fendros could contain. This power was greater still. The inescapable reality was that Meesei was a mortal trying to command the power of a god. She had achieved miraculous magical feats in the past, but she still had limitations on what her magic could do. 

At this point, she felt they had to try something else. Her allies were holding the enemy back, particularly with Molag Bal’s Daedra disrupting them, but that could only ever be temporary. All that was left was the lift Lorag had activated before. It had just reached the bottom of the tower a short time ago, but it would take just as long to reach the top, and its mechanisms would need to be kept safe the whole time. 

Meesei lifted her head up towards Fendros. “We need to get the pack into the lift…hurry.” She said. Hopefully, between their Daedric reinforcements and the rest of their warriors, Ri’vashi would be able to keep the enemy back for at least that long. They had only a single lift to work with, but it did look large enough to hold both her pack and Sabine’s, if only barely.