Prologue

 Two Roads

 

 

 

 

In those of the Blood, there is a dormant gene that is passed along by the father, which must be activated by forces released during a complex and dangerous ritual.  This ritual is called The Overcoming, and involves a series of trials that must be completed before one can fully attain the next rung on the evolutionary ladder.  Once the ritual is complete, the individual ceases to age in the physical sense, and his or her body no longer suffers from the decay and disease that plagues mortal humans.  To take the trials is the biggest decision those of the Blood will ever make.  To reach this decision, one must walk the mortal road for a time, a path where nothing is assured.

 

Sadly, not all who strive to overcome their baser nature and move up to the next rung on the ladder will succeed.  Many lack the will or the fortitude.  Physical strength alone is not enough, if the will to become something more than Man is lacking.  One must be willing to prevail over oneself and be born anew.  If the initiate dies in the trials, his body is burned on a ritual funeral pyre, with many songs and prayers for his soul, and his ashes are scattered on the wind.  That which is man is thus rendered unto Man.  But if the initiate survives, he gives birth to a dancing star in the heavens of Man’s constellation, and he need never pray again.  This is the Way of the Immortals.

 

For those of the Blood two roads lead to the future: Mortal and Immortal.  Which road to follow is a choice each one of the Blood will make.  But know this: All who walk the mortal road must die.

                                                                                         ~ Sedgewick, Son of Seymour