The Tower of Interosseus (the council tower). More like a collection of crannied grottos than of rooms and chambers, its outer wall smothered in a mat of dusty ivy, the Tower of Interosseus stands in the western part of Ex: thin, dark and as irregular as the butt of a used candle. This is the building from which Umbagollah is governed. The Governor's chambers lie on the third topmost floor. All that separates her from being in perfect communion with the sky is two attics filled with rolled papers, spiderwebs, moths, woodworm, dead pens, dried inkwells, fraying ribbons, a few old suits of clothing outnumbered by their trousers and a collection of other objects, similarly ephemeral. She is equipped with a desk and a large window through which she can see her city, a field of dark tower-tops, glittering in the sun or pointing rudely at the fat bottoms of descending clouds, and the Bay of Ex lying beyond them. The Council Chamber where the ministers meet can be found on the third floor. In theory the chamber is constantly open to the public, but on rare occasions the council may shut itself away for private discussions or, more likely, a nice lunch. The remainder of the Tower is taken up with small rooms of no predetermined purpose. Some are lined with shelves of books. Some contain galleries of pictures, or of statues. Water pours through a hole in the ceiling of one room and disappears into the floor of the one below it: it is a pretty spectacle and the sound of pattering water is extremely soothing but no-one knows how it came to be there. Both rooms are lined with moss. The uncoiled tendrils of ferns tremble against the walls, which are beaded with moisture. A number of formerly homeless people live on the sixth floor. Delegates and visitors from other parts of the country are housed in rooms on the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth stories. Other government officers - messengers, cleaners, secretaries and the like - work throughout the building. Most of their offices are congregated in the lower part of the tower.