Below us, people ran in panic over rooftops, and smaller buildings were falling sideways into the buildings next to them. From the balconies and open windows people were tumbling. Huge ocean waves the color of fire splashed against the great dome as if reaching to extinguish the endless flames.

The sounds of the explosions increased in volume until one deafening explosion after another shocked us and paralyzed us. Huge cracks and fissures broke up the walls.

Then great knives of fire appeared to slice through the dome itself.

“The luracastria, it’s melting,” Amel cried. I could see it. We all saw it, the towers melting, the dome melting. Our building shuddered. I fell into Welf’s arms. Amel grabbed hold of me and ran with me towards the doors, waving for the others to follow, while with his other hand he dragged Derek along beside him. “It’s the whole island; it’s the whole world.”

A fierce wind broke through the shattered walls and the fire blinded me. The roar of the population was as loud as the roar of the sea. I felt rain against my face but it wasn’t rain. I could feel myself falling, and I felt Welf against my ear saying, “Hold on to me, Kapetria, hold on. Hold on. Hold on.” I screamed for Derek and Garekyn. I screamed for Amel. I heard Amel’s voice but I couldn’t see him.

Down we fell as flames rose all around us. The surging water devoured us and then released us while innumerable humans screamed piteously for help. We were in a street which had become a roiling river of the drowning. The water was sucked away from us and again we tumbled as if into a fathomless abyss. Towers were melting, entrapping thousands of tiny faceless humans in the glistening sluggish liquid that had been the luracastria—thousands around me splashing and screaming for help when there was no help. Broken furniture, tables, chairs, traveling pods, and debris covered the waters—battered and broken trees. We were caught in a whirlpool. The planet itself had cracked beneath us. Down we went in darkness, only to rise to the surface once more.

Then I saw Amel, saw him silhouetted against an endless wall of flame. Where we stood, where we were, I could not tell. But there was Amel.

“Atalantaya,” he cried, but how I could have heard him, or heard anyone cry out any words, I don’t know. “Atalantaya!” he roared over and over again. He shook his fists at the Heavens. “Atalantaya,” he cried again and again.

The oozing luracastria was molten gold on the surface of the water as if it were burning. Boats, thousands of them, it seemed, surrounded us, but desperate people were capsizing them and pulling them under as they sought to climb on board.

Amel was gone. Derek and Garekyn were gone.