‘Griot, do you ever think of—of the cities—the cities under the marshes ? Did you know they were all copies of the cities that long ago—long, long ago—were all over Yerrup ? That was before the Ice. They were built here on permafrost. That is, permanent frost, that would last for ever—that is how we think, you see, Griot, that the things we have will last. But they don’t last. The cities sank down into the water. All of us, we live up here and just down there are the old dead cities.’ (...)