Eris on Cardamine

[Emissary]

"I look forward to your visit to Malta. I'm certain other families will be interested and taking up on opportunity to establish better and more effective business relationships..."

Anje stood up and walked past the pictures on the wall, talking about mixture of outcast traditions and politics till she reached the small table on the far side of the room. Amidst all the luxury this piece of furniture was standing neglected in the corner. Resting on its surface was a small object in a holding cradle. A strange 'gift' during one of the encounters Doc had with Nomads. This alien artifact that has been in his possession ever since, yet the purpose seem eluded - attempting to do anything with it yielded no results, and so it was left there as a decoration element, albeit where it would not be easily noticed.

"This brings me here. It's your interest in them and it wasn't left unnoticed."

As she looked down at the artifact, its crystalline surface has shifted the pattern for a second.

"Yes, I can see you do remember how you got this little 'gift'." - Anje paused for a few moments, examining Doc's reaction. "At very least you kept it, whereas others would have either sold it on the black market or given it to others, namely to the Order. So you've kept this little token, that is a good start."

From inside the artifact crystal a faint and slowly pulsating glow appeared, growing brighter at each next 'heartbeat', shifting patterns and colors between teal and purple. And with its glow room lighting began to randomly flicker, dimming away. The artifact was seemingly draining power from the ship itself or at very least this particular room to give itself the charge to operate. Few moments later flickering stopped, ship energy grid was restored back to operational state.

When looking directly at it the moments turning seconds, seconds to minutes and minutes to hours. Its pulse slows down as if time crawls to a grinding halt. Focusing further drags the thoughts away into unsettling humming ambiance of strange whispering noises on the edge of audible spectrum mixed with otherworldly razor sharp tones slowly burrowing into the mind and glitching bell clicks piercing like little needles. A few 'moments' later whispers would quiet down, and from within the glow something or someone was staring at Doc silently.

Anje stepped away from the artifact and walked back to take a seat and pick the glass of wine.

"And now we can talk... My associates know you've been looking for them earlier. Why?"

"Why..." - echoed in mind as the patterns on the artifact crystal surface shifted again. It wasn't a voice, and much like in that encounter it was just a thought - someone's else thought.