I walked out to the Volcano today for no reason except that I'd never really looked at it.

From the rim, the whole place glows. Not the small green flicker of a terminal handing me a deck. A deep orange light coming up out of the ground, out of the vents and seams, as if the mountain is made of the thing I've been chasing in tiny pieces.

Smiths work basalt in the heat below, barely looking up.

I spend my days gathering small glowing things for a shelf. Here was a whole mountain of it, burning in the open for anyone who walks out to see.

Too big to keep. I stood and looked anyway.