Muse

To the residents of Crystal Waters, a small town in Oregon, Chaya Jordan seems to have it all. A talented author, her career has just kicked off and she and her husband, Joshua, a linguist and part-time hacker, have moved into their first home together. But all is not as it seems …

Chaya and Josh are Elders of the Ashterai, ancient beings who normally exist outside of time and space, watching over the universe and those wandering within. A care-free, fun-loving soul, Chaya is Mistress of the Muses' Council while Josh is head of the Council of Biographers and part-time celestial guidance counsellor who helps incarnating souls decide their next move.

Having taken on human form to bring their daughter into the world, Chaya dreams of living a normal life; to live, love and die as a human and getting a chance to experience true mortality. Josh meanwhile is a little more ambivalent to his mortality but is determined to put his time to good use. Both, although outwardly human, have retained their ability to manipulate time and reality but also possess psychic abilities which they intend to genetically pass on to their unborn child.

Within days of incarnating and knowing Josh's habit of bending rules when it suits his needs, Chaya has her soulmate swear a binding oath not to change events once they happen. Backed into a corner, Josh reluctantly agrees to his wife’s wish but that oath will come back to haunt them.

Ten years pass and the world is changing. The millennium has come and gone, the world is still turning and psychic abilities are now fact, not just the stuff of fiction. Chaya and Josh have lived through some of the most important years in human history and are content raising their daughter. Laws are passed and a new governmental organisation is formed: the Bureau of Esper Affairs and Registration and it is now mandatory for every man, woman and pubescent child to be tested in order for them to receive all the 'help and support' they will need to control their abilities.

Chaya, a talented telepath, is by nature able to hide her abilities but for Josh the testing heralds the end of his career as a teacher at a prestigious university. Even though his abilities are tested as borderline and he is not required to join a public register, the head of the local BEAR branch office, Aidan Cole, becomes convinced that Josh is not all he seems. When Josh becomes a key figure in First Contact with the Union, Cole begins a witch hunt to expose the full extent of his psychic abilities and those of Aisha, the Elders' ten year old daughter. His hands tied by the oath Chaya had him swear, Josh is torn between his word and his desire to keep his family safe.

Taken

Hebe Rheyasei never asked for an easy life but she’s certainly never going to get it. Born on Mnemosyne, home of the Union, she has lived with the knowledge that she is different for all her life. The beloved daughter of two of the Ashterai who live openly as mortals, everyone on the planet knows that while Hebe might look Mnemosynian, she is also something else. Her classmates don’t understand her and her human nemesis thinks she is a freak. The only person who understands her is her Ashterai lover, James.

As Hebe struggles to find her place in society, the Union is approached by their old enemies the Mihari. A violent and soulless race, the Mihari worship their deified emperor and believe they have a divine right to all Union worlds. Once a great empire which conquered millions and still holds dozens of planets enslaved, the Mihari home world is teetering on the edge of destruction.

Under a pretext of suing for peace, the Emperor's son and heir, Mairven, arrives on Mnemosyne and accidentally crosses path with Hebe. As Mairven uncovers her origins, he becomes obsessed with her and the power he believes he can claim by taking Hebe as his consort. This meeting, unforeseen by even the Elders of the Ashterai, leads to murder, bloodshed and the very foundations of the Union itself threaten to crack under the strain.

Misplaced Soul

Ren is born a misplaced and ancient soul, an Aquilian who can remember tiny pieces of his lives on other worlds. Taken from his parents as a child, he becomes a member of a specific caste within their society, the Annukai, and grows up surrounded by people like him, including Aliasei, the younger sister of their Queen. He is a mere child when the Mihari arrive and take over the planet. Forced into hiding and charged with protecting the princess, his caste round up as many survivors as they can and patiently look for a way to escape their world.

Captured, Ren finds himself in a prison camp where castes have been forgotten. Each day is a struggle for survival until fate gives him a helping hand. While many of his companions die, Ren is able to steal a Mihari ship and, though his clan have long since vanished into hiding, he is able to rescue twenty souls and flee the planet.  However the ship is damaged, most of the souls onboard wounded and their oxygen processors destroyed.

Ren fully expects to die, lost and adrift in space – but free. To his surprise, he wakes on Mnemosyne but he was the only survivor of a doomed voyage. Alone on an alien planet, he finds a kindred soul in his saviour Bryant, one of the Ashterai who lives amongst the mortals of the Union. Encouraged and in awe of what the Union represents, Ren embarks on a career as a diplomat, determined to make a difference. 

Time passes and Ren becomes a Councillor of the Union and Ambassador to Earth. Now Joined to a fellow Aquilian refugee, he has never forgotten his true home and his people so when the Mihari arrive on Mnemosyne he senses something is about to change forever … he was there at the beginning of his world’s occupation and he will be instrumental in its end.