Conscientious

Ultramarine sown with gold — the inner witness that will not call a thing good once it has seen otherwise.

Lapis Lazuli · The Law of Paradox

Family: Rock of lazurite with calcite and pyrite
Hardness: 5–6 on the Mohs scale
Colour: Deep ultramarine flecked with gold pyrite
Signature: Ground into ultramarine, once costlier than gold; worn as the breastplate of judgement

The stone read as the word

Lapis was mined in Afghanistan for six thousand years and carried across the world to become the blue of Egyptian tombs and Renaissance robes. Its gold flecks are pyrite — truth with the fire still visible in it.

Conscience is knowing-with. This stone was set on the breast of judges precisely because a verdict has to be worn where the wearer can feel it.

What it is carried for

Carried when the honest answer costs more than the easy one.
Held for the inner witness that refuses to be argued with.