First discovered from the relics of the Lantieb, entwining shards were used as compasses pointing to the novas in other systems. They lock onto another shard or nova’s point in space and direct the object along a path towards it. Most in use today are synced to the original Lantieb shards found in ruins of those ancient people.
When rarely found in nature, entwining shards behave differently. They latch onto any other shards nearby indiscriminately and are pulled towards them, similar to a magnet. They can then be tuned to no longer lose strength with distance and to entwine with specific sources.