1 Prologue

CENTURIES IN FUTURE:

The queen of Asgard sat beside the altar. On it laid a corpse covered under a purple shroud. The queen's eyes were red with helpless tears. She straightened herself up and rested down her crown. Indeed she stepped off her position. Her and King Erik's daughter, Andromeda, rushed towards, "Mother!" She sobbed, "Why? Being a widow doesn't mean you would abandon everyone else in this existence…"

The dethroned queen smirked, "The thrones, were made by your father, Erik Frode Odinyios. He made the thrones so powerful that anyone who sits on them, gets control over the whole existence and all cultures in it. Now, your father is dead, so should be the power he built. No one other than him has the right over the thrones."

She stripped off the necklace of nine realms, "Some dystopian quotes that I always admired, 'I think dystopian futures are also a reflection of our current fears…' by Lauren Oliver, George Orwell said, 'Who controls the past, controls the future, who controls the present, controls the past…'"

She took a deep breath, "Andromeda, go and announce to all living and non living beings in this realm and the others, in this time and the others, Erik Frode Odinyios is no more…"

That day for a moment, the image before everyone was frozen in an unacceptable truth. Their worlds, their lives, all reduced to a handful of broken elements and stars in existence. Erik, the ruler above rulers held it all together. And now he is no more. He died a lot of times. His life ended a lot of times. But this time he did cease to exist for real. Death is a transformation of vital matter. And Erik had his human life stripped off very soon from his birth. But this, was unacceptable. Erik Frode Odinyios ceased to exist! He ended the legends awakening centuries before. And now his legacy rests.

As the queen returned to her room, her trembling hands locked the doors. Soon she fell on the ground. She lost her husband, the only love of her life. She sobbed as this unexpected truth settles on her. She just, just didn't want to accept it. She remorses one day, that might had changed it all. Erik was forced for an act. An act, that made him who he was.

That night sky was gleaming with stars. Erik was sitting on Rose wood bridge that was built on river Anna. He always considered river Dyrr as his best friend. But that day he just sat quietly on that bridge. He didn't share a word with the river. On the bridge laid ten corpse, on each laid a peculiar knife.

The queen snapped her mind from the memory. She didn't want to remember anything else. Yet he went near the book shelf and picked out four journals. Beside those four journals lied five more journals written by Andromeda, about her own life. These four, were written by Erik Frode about his life. She sat and opened the first one. It had the title, "Nine Kingdoms: One Confluence":

Nine kingdoms: One confluence :

-Erik Frode

Measuring time seemed irrelevant, as the laws and rules of the pre-apocalyptic word doesn't seem to fit in this post-apocalyptic world. The much I can account, it was 20 years ago when I got entangled into an eternal feud between beings not human or at least not human anymore.

Only about two hundred survivors out of 9.9 billion humans on and around Earth. The island we survivors live in, had been named Andrea. Precisely, I named it Andrea, as a remembrance to the best living being I ever crossed paths with. She is my best friend and the only reason I had been alive. I don't have a family here in terms os what family really means. But, it is the only thing that keeps me sane, happy, and alive for now. The endless horrors I had been through isn't exactly something , even the devil would impart.

Andrea is a happy home for me. We live, earn our own living, we celebrate our own occasions, and we have distributed occupations for our collective living. More than anything, what I love the most about this place is that; it is safe. Safe as my Andrea was for me. This place is way more safer than any of these residents can comprehend. And I know how much secure this place is, because, to make it safe, I did lose a lot! Thus like a father would think; I think, this tropical island, is really one of it's kind.

NOW:

Sun rays were kissing my face which was full of beard. Of course, I am more of an adult now, If I count right, I might age have aged to 36 years. As everyone said, time flew the fastest, I believed it. Though my personal experiences don't feel the same.

Every morning, when I wake up on these seashores, the tropical climate reminds me of my Asmund, my birthplace. The town, which still gives me my best of dreams, and worst of mornings. Worst of mornings because every-night I dream about my life before I turned 16. And I don't really wanna wake up ever from a dream like that.

Something did happen different today. I was diving in the shallow waters, with my spear, to hunt down the flatfishes.

This time, my spear hit a letter. A letter that was not wet by the water. As I opened it; shivers ran through my body and anxiety reined my mind. I immediately hurried to the shore.

Robert urged, "Finish your fishing sea boy! Otherwise you know the drill…"

Sam inattentively stated, "You would be thrown enough far into the waters. Then you, or your dead body, would float its way to another island in the same way, we found you years past…" With the burning sensation of fear and anxiety, I remembered how I almost drowned in the fathomless ocean and still washed up on this shore.

Not overtaking any fight, I quietly went to my tree house, and sat on a chair.

My fingers were trembling, heart was pounding and breaths, they were as shallow as dead body on water. It was almost as if, I was not breathing at all.

The letter was written by me, when I was least a toddler more a walking-talking-writing child and one of the members of Aldins Family passed away by a lightning strike. Aldins were the head or the chiefs of our township. So, they had a special spot for performing the last rites for their family members. We had to go all the way from Asmund to the west, where there was the Aldin's graveyard. The Aldin's graveyard was called Grafa Dys.

The graveyard is on the shallow waters offshore. I had heard of people saying that no one had ever escaped our Island except this man who died. Folks in Asmund said that he escaped from our island but after he landed back, he was shot dead by lightning.

The Aldins sends a boat which is loaded with all the belongings of the dead Aldins member into a strong riptide. I too placed this letter in it. According to the myth that says, no one escapes, the boat came back to the Island from the East through river Straumr. It docked itself on the bank of the river when it entered the Hofgi forest. Surprisingly it returned empty.

And here today, after numerous years, I am going to read this letter:

To unknown,

We are in a town that believes there is no world out there. If you believe that you are the only one in whole existence and get this letter then know that we exist as you do.

Here is some information about my island. Its name is Yeold Poe.

We live on icy slopes Mt. Logn. As we are taught, snow is what makes up mountain's coat, finding an icy slope is quite unusual. I wonder may be we are the only civilization living in a weird place with weird names.

Now let's come to the island. The diameter of Yeold Poe is 2600 km in average.

It has a mystical sea. When you sail straight you end up in sailing to the other side of this island. As I heard only one person till date had found the way to get out of this island by Hrid which are a special category of clouds surrounding us. When he returned he was struck by lightning. Though his diary was recovered, no one was allowed to read it.

We got suspicious development since. We got things that never existed under very less time. The man, who left Yeold Poe in 1965 A.D. and came back in 1993 A.D.. He died but gave a boost to our civilization. Under 17 years our island went through drastic changes. He also brought a map which roughly depicted whole Yeold Poe Island.

At the extreme north of our island, we have The Gulf of Arvid.

Arvid was the first Aldin of our clan who discovered the gulf by trekking Mt. Logn. He also tried to trek a range of hills he saw while trekking Logn. Those hills were named Torsten hills. That comes later.

Then Bani Dalr Dessert a.k.a. Nicro Valley Dessert, located at the extreme north-east of our Island. Nicro Valley is a place which is hot as extreme as nothing. When Sol scorches on it, everything burns. When Luna does everything freezes with cold.

Now we come to Torsten hills. It was mapped and trekked by one of our elder, Torsten Aldin. He took 20 years to do this.

There is also a myth about Torsten hills. That land was one of our ancestral habitats in Yeold Poe Island where we lived millennials ago. That time it was inhabited by mythical creatures and monsters. So, our elders decided to leave those hills forever. Then all monsters killed other creatures, and finally ended up in killing themselves.

After Torsten hills, comes our deadly Bjarg Cliffs. The surface of the cliff has uncountable emeralds stuck in its ground. No one can step on those grounds. Some of the many reasons I heard from others are the deadly unknown diseases, reptiles, vultures etc. But one of the Aldins from old era used magic to leech out emeralds which was moulded by magic to built the Aldins house.

The Aldins family was separated centuries ago. So now they live in different part of the same house. At first there were four families the Aldin, the Calder, the Eydis and the Erling. Now only three branches are left because just like the present condition of Eydis branch, Aldin had their last member as a woman who never had her own child.

Coming to our town Asmund, we have a high order or a group of families who takes all major decisions, our very own Aldins family. It's eldest member Granny Eydis. She is of 113years old. All major decisions are taken by her. Her one 'no' and 'yes' can decide life and death of any townie.

Now after her, comes the Erlings family whose elder member is Fell Erling. Their ancestors were witches and wizards. The last family of high order are the Calders. The elder member is Brynjar Calder. Their ancestors were the warrior