Firmament 0213 — Synthetic Signal Fire

The wood of a bonfire, 16 feet in diameter and 10 feet high, sculpted of solid glass. It has been molded with intricacy: the logs and sticks have tiny glass leaves and textures of bark and whorls of grain etched in exposed wood. Throughout the interior of the sculpture run a series of hollow tubes and glittering copper wires, which lead to a series of holes near the upper center of the mass. Below the ground, the tubes and wires converge on a copper sphere.

Nearby, a glass lectern emerges from the ground, another copper sphere embedded atop it. This sphere can be rolled freely where it is seated, like a trackball mouse, and cannot be removed without breaking the lectern. When manipulated, the sphere controls a flickering mass of fire-like light emitted from the glass statue. Rolling the sphere up ignites and makes the light taller (up to 25 feet high, while down lowers it until it goes out. Rolling it side to side changes the color and quality of the light between several possible outputs: a “natural” fire, a pale white phosphorescence, a blue flame with precise control of color saturation available, an unmoving golden pillar, and a glittering opalescent mass like a mess of stars.

The fire gives off little ambient heat, and smells of gases and hot metals.

When the blue fire is ignited at night, it reveals hidden paths along the sky leading to 0214 and 0314. Members of the transcendentalist village in 0212 know how to operate the fire, and use it to help more of their number safely make it off the wall.