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.