Longitudinal Fission

Splitting the first pan"Punde Stone opened the ocean to exploration and trade.
Before 456 when Shalique Fraciel devised a process to alchemically split and magically maintain the separation of the ruby and sapphire halves of these stones ocean travel was an uncertain and dangerous task. Navigating was accomplished by following a set of imprecise rules relying on memorization, experience, and practical seamanship. The imprecision of these methods meant knowing a vessels precise location was impossible without being in sight of a known landmark. Cartography was a well established science, yet vessels could be lost forever when leaving coastal waters.
pan'Punde Stones were originally regarded as nothing more than a gemstone of medium worth because of the difficulty of creating facets, the complete inability to split the colored bodies, and the way a stone resisted being positioned in any orientation other than red facing the sunrise. This last property led to them being used like compass lodestones. The process of maintaining a separation between halves was discovered quite by accident.
Longitudinal Fission is two-part process that splits and stabilizes both halves of a pan'Punde Stone.
The first is an alchemical reaction that coaxes the red and blue crystals to decouple. This separation normally causes both pieces to crumble into ash; however, a serendipitous discovery hinted at the possibility of maintaining the integrity of both halves. A pan'Fulourean apprentice alchemist was performing a routine lesson that called for the splitting of a pan'Punde Stone when his workstation was upset by his pet pig. The reaction continued as his lead basin, stone and reagents crashed to the floor. Upon picking up the basin, he saw the stone was split with the red half against the exterior of the leaden vessel and the blue half against the interior. The amazed student presented the basin to his teacher Shalique Fraciel who developed the second process.
The second process is an adaptation of the spells Teleportation Circle and Sending to maintain a interface between the crystals despite the physical distance between them. This second combination of spells requires the hemispheres to be stored inside terribly heavy lead vessels called Deckstones which are mounted inside stone cauldrons. The wall thickness of the lead canister somehow interferes wit the piece's ability to realize they are apart while the enchantments create an illusion of togetherness. The distance and direction one half is from the other can be determined by gradating the cauldron. The precision of these measurements is directly proportional to the size of the pan'Punde stone used and the craftsmanship of the manufacturer.