Episode Two

   Aditi stared at the green forest canopy below. She was relieved to be away from the great stone room and outside. She did not like the Polis, though she could see her friend Heru was impressed by it. He was looking back towards the monolith and when their eyes met, his were full of wonder.
   As it had slowly risen when they were brought here, the vast stone terrace was now descending away from the hall doors, down the side of the Polis.
   Her fellows marveled at the way the terrace slid smoothly down the building's side, but Aditi turned away to watch the jungle canopy rising to meet them, longing to be off the Polis and under its green protection again.
   "Did you see the gold on Lord Chill's throne? Aditi? Ah..." Heru shook his hand disgustedly at her and turned away. He could tell what she was thinking and that she persisted in her stubborn refusal to share his life long fascination with the Polis, despite the wonders they had seen inside.  It was an old argument between them, as old as their friendship, which had begun as two grubby urchins at play beside the village's main hut.
   There was a loud thud and she glanced up to see the great arched doorway had closed. Only it's outline remained to break the wall of stone.
   She remembered, with a shudder, that figure upon the throne. His skin had looked pale and waxen in the gloom of the hall. Lord Chill had seemed to her as pitiless and unfeeling as the stone of his castle.
   Yet Aditi was wrong in that.
   Nefario Chill was keen of feeling, quick to perceive and a master of masks.
   And his castle could think.