Swamped

"It's about the age of the sphere. It would be difficult for me to explain how I worked this out, so I'll cut to the chase - this sphere was made about a year ago, but it's got about ten years worth of degradation."

You mull on that.

"So, what, you think magic's making it age faster?"

"It's possible if the spell puts enough pressure on the material. But I didn't examine any of the other objects this closely, so I can't say if it's unique to this one or if that's just the nature of the gateway spells."

You don't respond because you're trying to go over what you know.

First, the sphere has a slightly odd shape. Second, its magic is similar to the gateway magic, but doesn't actually open gateways. Third, it's aging faster than it should.

Gateways seem to connect one point in the world to another. So if the magic is similar, maybe it's connecting something else?

"Time?" you mutter. "Is it connecting two points in time?"

Ember's face goes pale. And the Protectors around you seem rather upset.

"That's just a guess!" you clarify. You definitely don't want to cause trouble, especially if you don't understand why you're causing it.

"I don't think that's what it does," Ember says after a while. "But while I was looking into that, I think I may have found a lead. I don't think this sphere works like the other gateways we've seen - I think it's linked to another object, in some other place. Unfortunately, I think it's that object which controls the actual transportation. This only seems to be a receiver of sorts."

You have a bad feeling about this.

"Are you saying you can't take us to the other side, then?"

"Well, not quite. I just can't do it the easy way."

Now you have a really bad feeling about this.

"So what's the hard way?"