The Ever-changing Spire
Surrounded by lush gardens and constant scaffolding, the Fourth's Green Spire is constantly being altered. The gardens are open to all, although taking samples is forbidden, possibly because the plants here seem to change each day. Twisting, winding paths that may adjust themselves as you walk on them will eventually lead to the base of the scaffolding surrounding the Spire. Here, Workers constantly build, dismantle and rebuild, to the designs of some architech (possibly the Fourth himself) deep within the Spire. Entire families of Workers are born and raised here, and many of them will live and die here as well.
Inside, the Spire is, if anything, even busier. Designers fill rooms full of new designs for buildings, new layouts of streets, new wells and new supports for the tunnels of the Living Archeology Department's tunnels. The beaucrats of the medical system fling themselves up and down stairs grabbing reams of information on patients and the newest discoveries in medicine. Somewhere in here lies the largest library of medical texts outside of the Third Spire. You just need to know where it has ended up today. Describing the Green Spire as being as busy as an anthill would frankly be severely overestimating the productivity of ants.
The Fourth
The Fourth is best described as being aggressively caring. She flings herself into the running of the Spire, and knows the name of every single one of her Workers, and most of their families as well. They are often found wandering the streets, giving aid to those in need. Many have spilled their hearts to a kindly stranger in a bar only to discover that it was in fact the Fourth, with a gentle smile. He will help you. He will.
Describing the appearance of the Fourth would frankly be pointless. It changes hour to hour. Sometimes she is a tall, older woman. Sometimes he is a nervous looking young man. Sometimes they are an extremely attractive enigma. Whatever the form however, their personality remains the same. (A curious thing to note is that, once you've met the Fourth, you always know exactly what pronoun to use for her. This can be confusing for others, for instance if you are talking about her to someone who hasn't encountered the ruler of the Green Spire and then he changes in mid sentence).
It is sometimes said that if you are wondered beyond repair, if your bodies damage is beyond hope, the Fourth can restore you. Although what the results of such a thing would be, you can only guess.
The Workers
The Workers of the Green Spire are a constant sight on the city streets. There are no large scale private construction firms in the city; not by law, but simply because the Workers put them out of business. Clad in their green overalls, they travel in packs to their destination, hauling great quantities of material around in their carts, before swarming over the designated building site. Sometimes their work seems pointless (Why did that particular bit of pavement need replacing? No one knows), and sometimes entire groups of them seem to disappear into thin air, but for the most part the citizens welcome them, particularly now as the city needs to expand. It is sometimes rumoured that they are used to smuggle artefacts below the noises of the Soldiers and the Officers, but spokespeople for the Green Spire have vigorously denied these accusations.
The Hospitals
While the Fourth's control of the medical sector is not as complete as its dominance over construction, the three largest hospitals in the city are essentially run by it. The largest, the Smiling-Page Hospital, is more of a complex than simply one hospital, even allowing patients to stay there indefinitely. It has never reported a shortage of beds, even when the city has been gripped by plague.
The Tower of Aethos, built in an old tower in the oldest district of the city, is the most advanced of the Hospitals. It is here that surgical techniques and tricks are attempted and developed before being taught to doctors in the rest of the city. Recently, it has made headlines for preforming the first successful human to human blood transfusion. It's stores are full of strange chemicals and devices, waiting to be tested.
The third hospital, Arising Hands, is given over to the delivery of new life. Most of the children of the city are born here, as well as many other things, deep in the corridors...
Home 