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And you cannot discount your initial instinct that there was a single Emitter-Organ, and how the 'compass of misery' supported that instinct. If these blocks were the source of the cast, and they are all throughout the Construct, and the Construct is up to at least the second floor, then wouldn't the blocks on the second floor be high enough to 'hit' you at such an angle that the False Silverware in your apron pocket wouldn't be able to Shield your stomach from the effects of the cast? Not wanting to lose any more time, you set aside what you don't understand about the blocks and the Construct, and you focus on what you do, like how the blocks are integrated and the Glyph is set to be activated by the rest of the Construct.
If you think about it, using the temperature of the block as the activation condition of the Glyph is a real stroke of genius, a proper elegant design – and now that you think about it, the reason that the Conduit is so damned thick is probably because it has been Woven to be able to either conduct heat or heat itself up. Even if you are completely off the mark, and the heat is supposed to be applied to the Construct some other way, it is still quite clever. With scores upon scores of those little Glyph-Bearing blocks – probably several hundred of them all across one of the Constructs, assuming that it goes all the way to the top of the chimney – a more conventional Weaving would be almost impractical. Under such design philosophy, each one of those blocks would be pinned or somehow tied to their own dedicated Conduit, leading back to either a forest of nestled actuators where one actuates a handful, and each of those actuate another handful … or a monster single actuator, able to set the hundreds of Glyph-Bearing blocks off in one go. Either way, getting the actuation set up would be a half-dozen headaches, and that isn't considering the leagues - the actual leagues - of conduit that you would need to run between the actuation and the Glyphs. But done this way, all you would need is some means, mundane or Mysterious, of heating up all of the blocks. Likewise, the way that the blocks are embedded into the Conduit is also very elegant. From the way they sit, you have to assume that they were pressed into the Conduit as the Conduit was being Woven. Truly, it is so simple, you probably would never have considered it an option .. though it certainly does raise the question; when exactly did father do all of this Weaving? You know that he was Scrivening the blocks a few weeks ago, but you certainly didn't see him on the Loom Weaving this thing - or anything else for that matter.
You are puzzled, certainly, but with the Construct still slipping up and away before your eyes, you are not going to be able to figure this out now - so you shift your focus to the Conduit itself. And for once your timing is impeccable, because right away you see something key to understanding the Construct, something that you might have missed.
