Somewhat near the center of Acumin there was a (mostly) empty building, made of a combination of old bricks and new living growth. If it had been positioned more towards the outskirts it would likely no longer exist, or exist merely as a pile of ashes and long-forgotten rubbish. An unfortunate trend in history had led to Acumin being reduced (multiple times) to nearly just that, a pile of ashes and long forgotten rubbish. For this same reason, the town's sole surviving doctor was a hardened man who wouldn't faint at the sight of blood if buckets of it were dropped on him. He was an expert in emergency medical care, having dealt time and time again with broken or missing limbs, loss of blood, major wounds, cuts, scrapes, major burns... amputations made just in the nick of time as well as those that weren't.
Those that knew Dr. Sirius Ilnous knew that he was actually quite a nice fellow despite his tendency to remove limbs. Jovial at times although for the most part somber. He stayed and helped out as best he could, he himself having fled Olympia after it had been destroyed. He’d come to Acumin after the creation of the shield, and despite the destruction of the town and constant vysstichi raids, he had stayed.
The building itself was small, with a main room that served as Doctor’s Office and Schoolroom, and a side office that was reserved for a future Thane. The schoolhouse which served as office, waiting and operating room had a large wooden table near the back wall. This was bare, and had been recently sanded down and refinished. (It wouldn't do to have old dried blood on the table, after all.) Behind that was a small desk clear of clutter and mess. What little paperwork the doctor had was tucked neatly into the three small drawers fitted to the left side of the desk. Jutting out from the right wall was a bookcase which came about half way to where the large wooden table was sitting and was ten feet in length. To someone entering the schoolhouse it would almost look like a wall, massive as it was. On the front face were a few books but most of it was taken up with various tools, instruments, medicines, herbs and jars of unknown content.
There was no list of prices. The doctor was supported primarily by gifts from the townspeople of Acumin. They all felt he did them a great service and tended to overcompensate, so he lacked nothing there. He thus felt indebted to them and so would also do his very best, even if a particular family had naught to give him. Of course, the occasional traveler (though rare nowadays, that was starting to change) would come in, and then the doctor would need to bargain a fair price. But of course, the doctor's declared price was difficult to haggle... after all, sick people really didn't have much of a choice in the matter.
Given the low number of health-oriented clients, the building also served occasionally as an educational institute, as the large chalkboard at the back seemed to imply. If you went to the schoolhouse, you might not realize it was one, seeing as more days than not were 'vacation' or 'days off'. The doctor taught them as often as he could, as well as did other villagers. But with a population of a mere one hundred or so, finding someone to teach and control the energetic youngsters seemed to be quite an insurmountable task. At times, the young students would even be the beneficiaries of unexpected 'recess' as the doctor had to attend to various patients or others who came in to see him. Some of the children took it to be recess for the rest of the day even though told otherwise... but children would be children and in a quaint town like Acumin there was always something more interesting for them to find.
Adjoined to the building was the empty Thane’s office. Such an important building would, in a normal town, be closer to the center of town and perhaps attached to some important political building. In Acumin, limited resources had reduced it to a closet-sized room attached to the schoolhouse.
Though it was empty, the townspeople kept it fairly clean. It wasn't an organized effort or anything like that but most of the people who lived there thought it would be awful nice if a real Thane came to work there. So they kept the empty office clean in the meantime.
Once inside, there was a modest secretarial desk to the immediate left. In fact, those standing in front of the desk often found themselves in the way of the door and anyone who entered. Considering that not many people actually entered, it was not much of a problem. The desk was a greenish hue of brown and was carved in such a way as to make it look like it had just grown out of the floor. To the right were a few chairs, of similar design though of a reddish hue. The chairs looked worn and old but sturdy.
The Thane's office itself had a stately desk, carved in the official style of the Aelyrian Empire and thus was most probably imported. Most of the other furnishings were local, if of higher quality and in better repair than the furniture in the average household. In various drawers and on shelves seen here and there about the room were piles of leaflets and papers, books and a few scrolls. Some of them were very old, and they were neatly stacked in no particular order. Pieces of carved wood, rocks, and other objects from nature held them in place or acted as bookends. Most of the information stored here was useless, kept just in case the new Thane might ever need it.
Written by Dvalinn Brandrslá
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