So I finally got around to completing this quest, killing Malkoran and all that fun stuff.
But after I grab Dawnbreaker and talk to Meridia, when you start falling to Skyrim and you're supposed to be teleported to safety, nothing happens. Except for my untimely, splattery death.
The only thing that saved me was a save before opening that last room that Dawnbreaker's in, otherwise I'd be trapped. I've looked around and tried a couple of things, such as: shedding weighty items from my inventory, using the Become Ethereal shout before touching the sword (it won't let me use it after talking to Meridia, or open my items screen, so I can't fast travel either), moving towards Meridia as well as around her, and even creating a new save slot to see if when it reloaded again the portal would activate as someone had said on another site.
What I'm wondering is if there are any other ways to possibly get around this, or is the quest just broken for now? It's been really agravating to have to redo this quest later, but if there's no way around it I guess it can't be helped.