Balance

THE BALANCE is a Young Adult novel, set in a dystopian future. It takes place almost 200 years after a global thermonuclear war. The Land is ruled by a theocracy, the Council of God, which drove the Order into exile about eighteen years before the story begins. The Order was an organization that brought advanced technology from the past into the post apocalyptic era. Phoebe is seventeen, and the last Sensitive that was genetically engineered by the Order before they were either killed off or driven into hiding. She doesn't know why she's plagued by the voices, images, and feelings of the people all around her. For her, it's a constant struggle just to survive the chaos they bring to her life, and to hide her strangeness so that people don't accuse her of being in league with the devil. In the Land, strange behavior is reported; those deemed to be witches are sent to the Inquisition for questioning, and are then publicly executed. She lives in a harbor town, hiding what she is, and protected by her adopted father, Daniel. The Order hasn't completely vanished. Their ancestors established Sanctuaries before the war. The refugees from the Purge retreated to these hideaways to survive. Now they plot ways to restore the historic agreement that allowed them to share the benefits of an advanced civilization with people in the Land, and to co-exist with the Council. Their leader, a genetically-engineered Prescient, is aware of Phoebe, but has largely left her alone. Now he sees a danger coming for her, but also has visions that she might hold the key to a path that would reestablish The Balance.