Ascendants

Prologue

I was fifteen years old when i saw the first one drown. Since then, i've lost count.

At first it was chilling, watching them flail and strive to break up to the surface, thinking they had the ability to stop it. It was useless, and now although it wasn't pleasant, I watched with a stoic expression and a calm resolve as the latest victim slipped away into the dark abyss. No one would miss him, they never did. They were loners, outcasts, thrown away and forgotten by their people. We would pick them up, mold them, and hope that one day, someone would survive. But they never did. So we kept searching, and waiting for the time someone would break free and ascend.

Six months ago I first joined the hunting party. They were fierce, determined, and dependent upon no one. Exactly how I had wanted to be. Losing my family at a young age, I had jumped from foster to foster for a while before deciding I would be better off on my own. No one even noticed my absence. I had been fending for myself about two years before the hunters found me. I myself had been subjected to the cool waters of the lake. It was meant to bring out strength, to call forth the powers within us and help us ascend to greater beings. Or so that's what I had been told. No one else had survived since me. 

. A collective sigh ran through the party as we watched another life slip away into the abyss. He wouldn't be missed, he had had no one, it wasn't a comforting thought but it made the job easier.