The Doom Of Ys

When a city is inundated, all of its inhabitants are simultaneously drowned, killed or otherwise affected in diverse ways. In order to present a brief and unified account of such an event, Poul and Karen Anderson, in Dahut (London, 1989), give the Christian minister to Ys, Corentinus, the ability to endow the Ysan king, Gratillonius, with clairvoyance by touching him with his staff.

Gratillonius's spirit, rising like a heron through winds of space and time, sees:

the sea covering the isle of vigil, destroying the house and turret of the Witch-Queens and killing Queen Bodilis as she tells her Gods that They will be judged for Their actions;
Queen Forsquilis entering the Mithraeum in the Raven Tower and calling on its God before stabbing herself as the sea breaks in, destroying the tower;
Gratillonius' deputy and his family drowned in their home;
another legionary and his family drowned trying to reach higher ground;
the sea destroying the library and those who have taken refuge in it;
Queen Innilis trampled to death in the stampede to escape from the flooding library;
Queen Vindilis climbing onto a stone lion but the water going above her head;
Soren Cartigi, Speaker for the God Taranis, saying calmly, " 'Ocean has entered...The Gods have ended the Pact...' " before being hit in the neck by a shard of glass from a toppling tower (pp. 458-459);
Queen Lanarvilis ground into a barricade;
Queen Maldunilis running, falling, floating, going under;
Queen Guilvilis, too crippled to flee, trying the forgive the Gods as the sea comes in;
Guilvilis' daughter, Valeria, and her companions trapped by the flood beneath the wall of Ys;
the palace collapsing on Queen Tambilis and an Ysan naval officer;
most of the current and former Kings' daughters engulfed;
the Lodge and the Wood of the King burning while his enemy escapes;
houses falling like sandcastles;
ramparts breaking asunder.

Returning to his body, he sees Princess Dahut torn from his grasp. His seventeen years as King have ended. Eight of his Nine Queens have died.