There was screaming, the myriad peoples of Atlantis panicked and running everywhere, desperate to escape the doom the high mages had wrought. Orania could see them fleeing for the coast even as the sky itself burned black and Mount Thera spewed the hot blood of the earth onto them. She glanced at the mountain, enveloped by an immense white-hot serpent who was breathing still more fiery death into the Atlantean cities and spires. The great temple atop the peak was no more; its magnificent orichalcyon dome ran down the slope in rivulets now and its marble halls were cinders. She saw the air shimmer with heat haze as far as she could see, and the sea was boiling away into mist.

    Amid the thunder, the other high mages were shouting unheard, trying to organize. Orania wept as she was pulled along, for the world was paying for their hubris. Surely other volcanoes were erupting on the continent, surely drought was to follow in the wake of the drake's sun-like heat. The crops would fail, the people would be forced to scrape by for survival. Conflict was inevitable as the desperate refugees flooded the surrounding empires. For their arrogance, Orania thought, civilization as they knew it would collapse. Atlantis should have never sought to control the Sun itself.

    The archmage led them in spell-chant, the ashen winds whipping around them and stinging Orania's eyes. They would seal the worldburner dragon, expending their lives to do so. The seven of them raised their swords, the adamantine blades gleaming bright white even in the auburn light. Around the mountain, great sigils of light cut through the fire and flames, and the beast bellowed a subsonic roar that shook the bones of the earth beneath the council's feet. Orania felt the searing soul's fire consume her from within as the spell was completed, sealing the sun-spawned titan with Mount Thera inside the earth.

    Orania drifted back to the present, her mind having wandered to the distant past as Benedicta Cornell asked her about Atlantis, and where it might be. The cool comforting lights of her sanctum in the Sunset Road flickered as she focused on remaining in the now.

    The ghost smiled sadly, wiping the tears away from her phantom flesh. "Atlantis is lost, my dear child. Only memories and echoes remain."