By has tried to arrange the stones into something someone else wouldn't use. So no symbols of the Cetagandan Empire, no heraldic symbols - nothing of the sort. He's settled on a nice rendition of two overlapping triangles, something altogether without meaning to anyone. He frowns down at it and makes adjustments, trying to look like it's a symbol of huge significance.

"Don't touch this, brat," he says to Negri, and stands and starts to stalk away. Right. So the next step will be finding out if the General suddenly wants to question him about these particular symbols - that'll mean that Negri is reporting back to the old man after all. And if someone else is interested in those symbols...Well. That will be interesting, won't it?