Introducing the Fire Dorms

Close to central campus, but hidden within an awe-inspiring, maze of gardens that blossom no matter the time of year, only the tile roof-tops of the Fire Dorm are visible from a distance.



The building itself sits as if upon a mirror. Wooden walkways connect the dorm from the land and gardens beyond. Though the water is perhaps only knee-deep, the golden fish and landscape below are as beautiful and distant as the gardens. Torches on tall poles surround the house, the flames dancing as if hosting a party for flickering fire spirits.

The building is ancient Japanese, an relic of days long past, and quite out of place but for its shroud of mysterious gardens.

Inside, the doors slide apart, the rooms spartan in design. Every little thing has its place and function; there is little excess. There is also no electricity. Illumination comes from the carefully-crafted and spell-worked lanterns and lamps. Heat comes up through the stone floors, with vents inside the walls to carry the warm air to the upper levels.

The tiles of the roofs are red, and all the woods in use are warm and gleaming, inviting the eye and gentle to the touch. The main level is the common room. The walkways across the pond connect to a wide porch and the first day the panels are all slid aside to reveal all, the whole floor visible from one side to the other. The walls are designed such that the common room might be divided into an infinite number of smaller chambers. Seldom does a week pass in the Fire Dorm with the same arrangement.

The very center is open onto a courtyard. Center-most is a well-like structure, but within burns a grand fire, crackling from Winter to Summer and back again. This is the preferred gathering place of the residents, sitting amongst the warm stones swapping stories, gazing into the bonfire, or staring upwards at the stars while the flames flicker in the corners of their eyes.

But to get to the Fire Dorm, one must first pass through the gardens.



"Where is it?" some say, lost and wandering, but the residents know. They traverse the many paths, both seen and unseen, with care for the plant-life, with wonder and with joy, and without fear of losing their way. To them, the paths all lead to the center as if the fire itself calls to them.

They laugh and call to one another, or sit in meditation amongst the flowers, or upon the bridges, the grass, the stone benches amongst the trees. The warmth of the world, from the sun above to the molten core below, are always upon their skin and closest to their hearts.

Herein lies the Fire Dorm.