She gripped the ancient relic tightly, feeling the power running through it. There was a faint glow emanating from the object, casting an eerie glow on her face as she examined it. It fit in the palm of her hand, and though not particularly heavy, it felt weighty for its size. Cassandra ran her fingers over its surface. Smooth. Almost like marble. Interrupting the smooth landscape were occasional features that added the only textures of the object. A bump here, an indentation there, a slight roughness over here.

There was also the inscription. One surface was marked with what were probably characters or letters. Cassandra was well versed in several writing systems but these symbols were unfamiliar to her. They curved and swooped, each symbol seeming to connect with the next. She turned the object around in her hands, looking for any other markings that might reveal something about its intended purpose or origin. What ancient civilization (or alien beings?) had created this, Cassandra wondered, and what was it for? Could it be a weapon? Or some kind of defensive device? But defensive devices were often weapons themselves. Just as likely though, it might be something as mundane as a child's toy. Cassandra stood up from where she had been kneeling and brushed the dirt off her knees. She had been squatting there too long, she realized, when she swayed unsteadily for a moment. Dizziness clouded her senses while blood tried to make its way back to her head. Her hands spread instinctively as she fought for balance, and the object slipped from her suddenly unclenched hand. Cassandra's body reacted to her panic of losing/breaking/detonating the object. Oxygen-rich blood surged into her brain. Her hand shot out and caught the object before it could collide with the ground with undesired results.

Cassandra breathed heavily, her heartbeat starting to return to normal. As she gripped the object firmly she felt a slight give under one of her fingers. Her index finger had pushed against one of the slight protrusions and caused it to depress with a soft click. The object's curious glow intensified. A melodious chime sounded, and simultaneously the device vibrated in her hand. The vibration was brief, lasting less than a second, but its strength and abruptness startled her. Cassadra let out a yip, and jerked her hands upward, causing the object to fly out of her hands. Panicking for the second time in less than a minute, she hot-potatoed the object several times until finally catching it in both hands.

"Cassie?" A distant voice echoed in her ears but it felt unreal.

She took another heaving breath to calm her nerves, and swayed again.

"Cassie!" The voice came again, clearer this time.

Cassandra turned to the source of the voice and found a familiar face. "Jan?" Cassandra croaked. The cloud of confusion had returned and she was having trouble focusing again.

"Cas, what are you doing?" Jan sighed, cocking her head at Cassandra with an almost sympathetic look. Her gaze fell on the object in Cassie's hand. Jan scoffed. "You dropped your phone again, didn't you?"

Cassie looked dumbly from Jan to the thing in her hand. "Phone..." she intoned, speaking the word as if for the first time.

Jan huffed a laugh. "Cas, seriously. You are so weird when you're drunk. Have you even called your Uber yet?" She took out her own device and started tapping the screen absently.

The object in Cassie's hand let out another melodic chime as a vehicle rolled up beside them.

A friendly voice called out, "Cassandra?"

"Yep," Jan said without looking up, pointing at Cassie. "That's her. Go home Cas. Sleep it off."

Cassandra slid into the back seat of the vehicle and let her body fall across the full length of the back seats. "Home," she said in a half whisper. She hugged the object -- her phone -- to her chest and closed her eyes. "Yeah. Let's go home."