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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.