The Copper Hypothesis

The Copper Hypothesis

In-universe date	Era Nova, June–July, Year 5
Real-world date	2026-09-29
Author	Percival van der Berg
Category Type	Character News

We had spent months attempting to understand the obsidian, yet our efforts had yielded little beyond a better understanding of its unusual properties. We had reconstructed the frame, examined the ruins, and tested the material in every way we could reasonably devise. Still, the structure remained as unresponsive as ever.

There was, however, one possibility we had yet to investigate properly.

Copper.

It was a material familiar to every artificer in Koperdam. We used it in machinery, fittings, pipes, and countless other applications. Its malleability made it easy to shape, while its durability allowed it to serve in constructions that demanded precision. If the obsidian frame required some additional mechanism, copper seemed a reasonable place to begin.

I gathered my associates around the workbench and laid out several of my sketches.

“What if the frame requires something beyond its shape? Some means of interaction, perhaps, or a mechanism that allows its components to work together?”

One of my assistants suggested that the original structure might have contained metal fittings that had since been removed or destroyed. It was an appealing idea, though we had found no evidence of such fittings at the ruins.

Nevertheless, it gave us somewhere to start.

We began by rebuilding the obsidian frame, following the measurements recorded during our previous experiments. Around it, we installed copper plates and carefully shaped brackets, connecting them through a series of rods and movable components. We experimented with different arrangements, adjusting the position of each piece and introducing simple mechanical switches that allowed us to alter the configuration without dismantling the entire apparatus.

Our first attempts were entirely uneventful.

We moved the components, adjusted the fittings, and tested each arrangement repeatedly. Nothing changed. The obsidian remained dark and inert, and our copper apparatus served little purpose beyond making the reconstruction considerably more complicated.

Still, I refused to dismiss the hypothesis so quickly.

We had already learned that the shape of the frame mattered enough to warrant careful study. Perhaps the same principle applied to whatever mechanism accompanied it. We continued adjusting the apparatus, recording every configuration and the results it produced.

It was during one such experiment that something unexpected occurred.

As one of my associates moved a copper fitting into place, a faint distortion appeared within the centre of the frame. It lasted for scarcely a moment, like the wavering of air above a hot surface, before disappearing entirely.

We all stopped.

“Did anyone else see that?”

My associate nodded, though neither of us could explain what we had witnessed. I immediately ordered the apparatus left untouched while I recorded the precise arrangement of its components.

We attempted to reproduce the effect. We returned the fitting to its previous position, moved it again, and repeated the process several times. For a while, nothing happened. Then, on another attempt, the distortion appeared once more, faint but unmistakable.

It vanished almost immediately.

I examined the apparatus, checked the fittings, and asked my associates to repeat the procedure while I observed from another angle. The result remained inconsistent, but the fact that it had occurred twice was enough to warrant further investigation.

For the first time in days, we had observed something that could not be explained by the properties of the obsidian alone.

I looked over our notes, then at the frame standing upon the workbench.

Perhaps the copper was interacting with the structure in some manner we did not yet understand. Perhaps our arrangement was still incomplete. There were too many possibilities to draw any firm conclusions.

But we had found something.

“Do not alter the apparatus,” I instructed my associates. “We shall repeat this experiment until we understand precisely what causes the reaction.”

I returned to my journal and began a fresh entry, documenting the arrangement, the movements we had made, and the brief distortion that followed.

The gateway had not opened. We were no closer to understanding its true purpose than before.

Yet for the first time, the structure had responded.

And that was reason enough to continue.