"They're mostly focusing just on better materials for the hulls of ships, somewhat on navigation; we're focusing more on ritual solutions."

"That makes sense," he nods. "I heard he had a magic artefact of some sort that helped with that but no one's mentioned anything like that to me to calculate stuff with..."

"He has so many artifacts... If you're talking about the one I think you are, it's more of a power source. So, helpful only in the whole 'we require a rather ridiculous energy output' arena - if you're not familiar with magical theory you probably wouldn't have noticed that the numbers you're handling are larger than normal. Although he seems to think it should be able to do more, we're having trouble with it. Typical, though. Artifacts can be choosy about who they work for."

"Yeah I wasn't familiar at all. Artefacts are—people? They choose things?"

She hums. "They can be clever, certainly, but I've never seen or heard of an artifact that was a person per se. A big thing - and this is actually a problem - is that they can't meaningfully change in nature the way people can. The choosiness works differently between artifacts, but a common way is that the artifact simply checks traits against a list, or requires some form of unique magic to activate."

"Huh. Can it be any sorts of traits? Are there patterns?"

"As far as I know, yes. There aren't any inherent patterns; the only patterns are from similarities in the artifacts' makers. Some sort of moral component isn't uncommon."

Nod. "And the lord's is not like that?"

"We don't think there's a moral component, though who knows. It's hard to tell what an artifact's looking for definitively."

"Well if it works for him then whatever it is he probably has it."

"Possibly. It's possible that it's only working partially, though. Slightly odd behavior, but it is an odd artifact."

"Odd how?"

"No known origin - to us at least - and its shape is odd. Most artifacts are weapons, or boxes, or rings, or necklaces - that sort of thing. This is a small, white glowing ball. Its energy is also - strange. Different from any artifact I've handled."

"—huh. That sounds really weird. Where'd he get it?"

"Not sure."

Shrug. "Weird."

"It's really annoying how little we know about it, too. Hard to find out more, though."

"He doesn't know where he got it, either?" he asks, sounding bewildered.

"He hasn't said."

"...sounds a bit counterproductive to figuring out how it works but I guess he must know what he's doing."

"He said it's not really relevant, since he just knows who he got it from, not its proper origins."

"Oh. That makes sense, I guess. I wonder who it could be..."

"No clue. Could be from a collector, or an old friend, or one of his contacts..."

"Hmm. He wouldn't... talk to a commoner like me, would he...?"

"You'd have to talk to the secretary about that, or catch him on one of his walks, though that's likely to annoy him. Unless you have some sort of unique insight, I'm guessing it's unlikely you'll get in to see him."