The Gnomon of the Dying Sun

Rising from the flat mesa is a collection of jagged, obsidian-flecked pillars that cast impossibly long, needle-thin shadows across the cracked earth. At the center stands a weathered quartz altar, its surface carved with concentric circles that thrum with a faint, warm vibration. As the sun begins its descent, the air turns unnaturally cold, and the shadows of the pillars do not move with the sun but instead seem to reach hungrily for specific runic depressions in the ground. The scent of ozone and incense hangs heavy, and the distant horizon blazes with an amber light that seems to concentrate specifically on this elevated plateau.