So, how did Ameronis get on at her expensive fighting club yesterday? You’re interested in seeing all the advanced “forbidden techniques” she claimed she’d learn. Ameronis looks thoughtful for a moment.

“Tomorrow,” she says. “I didn’t have a full lesson yet; just an initial assessment. But, I got to see what they had on offer, spoke with the teachers and students, and met some interesting individuals. All in all, it was quite promising, and I look forward to my first real session in the morning. The only issue is that it takes so long to travel back and forth; I might consider moving to a hotel closer by…”

A hotel in Eastmere would be an ideal way to drain a purse dry in no time, but is she really planning to do lessons there often enough to warrant moving closer? If she’s already considering it before even having a proper session, perhaps the service there really is something. But, probably still not enough to justify the cost of each lesson.

Ameronis looks out the window of the cab as you ride along to Greenbook, contentedly taking in the sights. Though she doesn’t look as fancy as she did last night, she opted to take on a slightly formal look today, contrasted against your continued practical, comfortable attire. When you asked her why, she’d half shrugged.

“I like to dress for the occasion and the location”.

You think back to your experience yesterday and your feeling out of place with the students staring at you, and wonder if they’d have reacted the same way if you were dressed like Ameronis is now.

At the grand entrance of Marla Gate, you lead Ameronis along the path you had followed, marching straight towards the museum. Ameronis follows, though slightly slower, as she takes in the sights. You wait for her near the museum entrance. No one seems to pay her any mind, but you think you may have received a few glances yourself, but it’s hard to tell.

Inside the museum, you both pay the entry fee and step into the main hall. Ameronis immediately marvels at the yagreya statue, while you glance up at the balcony in the direction of the geology department. You already saw the majority of the displays, so you arrange to go and meet Dr Zenkolia, then come back and find Ameronis wherever she is in the museum later. She agrees, and begins reading the information board about the grand display.

Back in the geology department, you return to the staff desk where you previously met Ray, who is, once again, sorting paperwork. He greets you when you approach.

“Ah, you came back! Excellent. The Doctor should be in the lab now; let me go and see if I can find her. One moment…”

You idly rotate Silas’ pendant between your fingers as you sit and wait for Ray to return. If it does turn out to be diamond, might Silas regret giving it to you, considering its unexpected value? Should you give it back? If he sold it, it could quite easily lift him out of poverty, for a good while at least. But, would he really need it? On the other hand, it could set you up for a good while instead. You’d have to put the money in a bank, though. It’s risky enough walking around with your modest wealth as it is.

Your pondering is interrupted by Ray calling for you to go on through to the lab, and you tuck the pendant away and follow Ray’s directions behind the scenes.

Down a long corridor and past a series of quiet rooms, you eventually enter the lab, which is an orderly mess of tables, cabinets, boxes and benches. There are trolleys stacked with items, papers, trays, and labels. The desks are entirely clear, or covered with a variety of tools and equipment, the likes of which you largely cannot identify. The room is twice as long as it is wide, and several people work calmly, alone or in pairs, speaking in hushed tones as though they were in a library. Sunlight streams in through the tall windows and periodic skylights, brightly illuminating the entire space, and the lab has both a relaxed and clinical feel to it.

Based on the brief description given to you by Ray, you identify Dr Zenkolia amidst the people present and head over to introduce yourself. She is taller than you expected, easily over 6 feet, with narrow black eyes and wavy auburn hair streaked with silver. She appears to be in her mid-sixties and seems quite resilient. Despite everyone else going out of their way to be silent, she hums softly to herself as she works, checking a sheet of paper against some notes in a book, then periodically writing something down. Her multiple gold bracelets jingle against each other as she moves about.

At your arrival, she looks over, closing the book with the paper and pen as a bookmark, turning her attention to you.

“Well now. Welcome! Master Ascorn spoke of a guest with an interesting specimen; I believe you have something you’d like to show me?”

You hand her the pendant and explain the chain of events so far and how you’re hoping for a final clarification. You’re sure Professor Morandu is correct, of course, but a second opinion can’t hurt.

The doctor nods as she inspects the stone, focusing on the gold inlay in particular.

“Oh, is this a Narshakian glyph? It’s very well made.”

She beckons for you to follow, then leads you to a part of the lab with a few larger pieces of equipment.

“Yes, Ray mentioned that yesterday, and Morrandu is very astute when it comes to these things.”

She stares at the inlay for a few more moments before setting the stone in a clamp and looking at it closely through a specialised magnifying lens.

“However, while I am not an expert, I am 99% certain that this is not diamond but is, in fact, shazurite. And if this is, in fact, shazurite, then what we have here is an antiquity, rather than an antique, and quite a rare piece at that.”

You blink at her as she motions for you to look through the lens. You do, and see the image focused on the point between the black stone and the gold inlay.

“For a diamond carved with a rotary tool in a specialist workshop, I would expect to see a rough, scratched boundary between the stone and the gold, as diamond is very brittle and prone to fracturing, but as you can see…”

The line between the black and the gold is perfectly smooth and clean.

“It is not possible to carve a diamond this way, and even if you were to try to polish the edges with an even finer tool, it would continue to snag and fracture and still be imperfect under the lens.”

She takes another look through the scope herself, then removes the stone before running her finger over the inlay.

“That, combined with this design. It looks like ancient Narshakian, but don’t quote me on that… At first, I thought that it might be a modern replica in the style of the Ossma Cache, but modern tools can’t replicate that ancient style, certainly not on a diamond. It could only be done on something much softer, jade, for example, or onyx or jet for black varieties. But if you had it tested for hardness and were told it was a diamond, then it can’t be a softer stone. So, either the initial hardness testing was completely wrong, or, more likely, you happen to have an actual piece from the Cache, or one of the other locations.”

She hands the pendant back to you as you attempt to process your thoughts. However, she speaks again.

“In any case, it would be wise to keep it safe. That may not be some mere trinket or replica. Shazurite on its own is very rare and very expensive; we don’t even have any on display here in the museum.”

You have a lot of questions. Zenkolia glances at a clock as she makes her way back towards her desk.

“You’ll forgive me; I’ll try to answer what I can, but I’m not an expert on the archaeology side of things, and I have a lot of work to get back to. But, in short, the formation of shazurite is disputed, with some claiming it formed naturally under extreme circumstances, and others claiming it is some form of man-made composite using techniques that have long since been lost. Either way, only a few samples of ‘raw’ shazurite shards have been found across the continent. The ‘majority’ of the Shazurite finds are worked pieces: small smoothed plates and small trinkets and jewellery, giving more weight to the composite argument. 90% of all of those worked pieces were found in one large cache and a few smaller satellite ones in one region in Gantansu, in an area formerly known as Ossma. The remaining 10% have been found randomly across Erondel. I don’t suppose you have any idea where this came from?

Discoveries like the Ossma Cache led to a boom in interest in the ancient Narshak culture, and for a while, it was all the rage to adorn one’s home and self with designs like those found in the cache. These days, it is not uncommon to find fine antique jewellery decorated with glyphs inspired by that time.

These days, it is not uncommon to find fine antique jewellery decorated with glyphs inspired by that time. It is uncommon to find parts of the cache floating around, but hardly surprising. With the frenzy it caused, it’s not unreasonable that smaller discoveries were made, or that, over time and during transit, parts of the cache ended up… misplaced.”

You still have many questions, but are conscious of the time. Now, the idea of the pendant has shifted, but you’re still not 100% sure about what it is. The doctor doesn’t seem able to confirm its identity; surely there must be someone somewhere who can?

The doctor nods. “First, you need to do a proper hardness test with the correct lab equipment. We don’t have that kind of equipment here, but if you go to Blackminster, the Minworth Mining Museum does. They will be able to confirm, for sure, whether it has the hardness of a diamond or not. If it does, you should then take the stone to an archaeological expert, one who specialises in Narshak, or who knows a great deal about the cache… I don’t know who fits the bill for that. Not off the top of my head. I would have to speak with my colleagues and see if anyone else knows, but that’s not something I could do right now; maybe at the faculty lunch…”

She thinks quietly for a moment.

“I’ll tell you what. Leave your contact details with me. I will speak with my colleagues and see if we can collectively nominate someone suitable for you to discuss this item with. I will then have a message sent to your residence with the details of the appropriate expert, or failing that, the next best place to ask for more directions. How does that sound?”