my office

The towers of the Eddy are magnificent. The spires rise from the southeast shore like a mirror image of the island's peak. The Water Seekers live in a half-ring structure adjoining the land side of the towers so that the sea side can be used as a framework for a dome of water surrounding visiting boats.
This is not where my office is. My office is about a quarter-hour hike inland in a room of the old barracks that haven't been slept in for at least twelve years. I'm not complaining that it's not fancy--I'm glad enough to be here I don't care where they found the space.

Entries

One serious drawback to this office is that there's only one opening that can let light in, and it faces north. I concede it's the only way to make the whole room dark enough to process vinegar paper into images, but since I've given up on that it just means I can't work in real daylight most of the time. I also don't get to enjoy a view of the Eddy towers.

Contents & Furnishings

The centerpiece of my office is the desk. It is the sweetest piece of furniture I've ever used and I wish it were really mine, but I'm only borrowing it from Uncle Nkeba. It's the desk from his judge's office, and he brought it to the Eddy because the towers still weren't done when he last left and he didn't realize that as Dancinglight he'd have a better office than he remembered Sage Varenonde having. It has the perfect angle of recline, the desk surface is on a hinge and latches into place when I'm settled in, it's got lovely textures worked into the underside, there's an adjustible riser for my feet, and best of all it can SPIN.
There's a large cabinet for my imaging boxes and processing tools. It's not a full professional set because this isn't my specialty. I had thought that my reports would be improved by having images attached, but it turns out that studying image processing for half a term isn't actually long enough to be able to do all the steps correctly without help. So other than the first few months when I wasted most of the vinegar paper and processing chemicals, that cabinet has stayed shut.
In the back area there is a small boulder and a good thick stick. It's not what you expect to find in an office, but after I experienced some frustration earlier this year Uncle Nkeba said I should have something that will let me use this place as a temper room if I need it. Beating a rock with a stick isn't quite the same as throwing down a slamhandle but it does the trick almost as well.
The rest of the room is storage for notes and documents. Some of it is even in containers.

Alterations

Originally this room was open-sided like the rest of the barracks. But one of the protos Sage Varenonde recruited was szageki, not human, and couldn't sleep except in a chilly environment. That doesn't happen naturally here, so in order for her just to survive the room had to be modified so it could be made airtight. The wall openings were filled in and the shutters were edged with a material that could seal against itself when closed, yet still separate easily. The tower architecture couldn't be adapted in this way, so for the next several years szageki protos could only be housed in this building.

History

When Sage Varenonde first proposed rebuilding the Eddy, she had it in mind that the former Wringers would remain on Mraydor while the construction was underway. But when the islanders began calling for executions of prominent Wringers, especially Istlourn, she ordered the barracks built immediately. They were supposed to be temporary housing until the main structure of the Eddy towers was completed. Delays in the work extended the lifetime of the "temporary" barracks by an extra three years.
Even then the buildings weren't torn down. It would have been too disruptive to the szageki still sleeping here. Instead they were used as supply storage, and that's what most of them still are. After the szageki stopped coming to the Eddy, this particular room was sometimes used for meditation training because the ability to block out light and air reduces distractions.
For the past couple of years I've been allowed to use this exclusively as my workroom.