"It's a steady rhythm-- Almost like a heartbeat, I would say? Two tones, then a pause... two tones, then a pause. Magic, perhaps? But dwarves weren't particular noted to be-- but then again, elves..." Sophie pondered for a moment, before pulling out her trademark notebook once more, and flipping it open to an empty page. It was really, truly a skill to be able to flip the thing open to the first empty page that it had without either a bookmark or a tab to keep things separate. None could beat Sophie at flipping to an empty page in her notebook, you could argue. She was simply the best there was at it.
"Would you mind holding onto it for a bit longer? I just want to... Take a quick sketch and..." She asked out of politeness, but in truth she was already quill-deep in her notes on the strange artifact, and it's design details. Oh, she already had plenty of ideas as to what it could be; A key, perhaps, or some means of magical communication across distances, or perhaps a spell of defensive or offensive magic was cast into it, to be activated at the proper time and under the proper circumstances. There were simply too many variables, and they'd only scratched the surface of their exploration of the caverns, so it wouldn't do to get too deep in the weeds about it-- not yet, at least.
Notes written, notebook secured once more, she looked to Simon with an almost giddy expression. "Shall I hold onto it? In case it's rhythm changes, or something else occurs? The mountain dwarves weren't exactly known for frivolous toys or pointless creations-- I'm not sure what purpose it'd serve just yet, but I'm sure we'll likely either need this trinket or find an important use for it as we move on!" Her cup runneth over with excitement once again, but Sophie was doing all that she could to temper it for the time being. She was happy to have just made this one discovery-- this trip was already paying dividends, in her mind. "Don't think I'm going back on my deal, though; If we don't end up needing it for anything, it's all yours!"