The Fourfold Lantern Seal

A round chamber of pale stone hums with old heat, as if a furnace sleeps behind the walls. Four pedestals stand in a ring around a bronze lens set into the floor, each pedestal carved with a season-mark and stained by wax, ash, pollen, or frost-salt. When any pedestal is touched, thin lines of light race through grooves in the floor, then fade or flare depending on the order chosen. The air smells faintly of candle smoke and wet leaves, and every mistake releases a dry clack from somewhere unseen, like a mechanism taking note.