The Astral Eyes

The Call

"You know the whole Balance thing gave me so much hope. Now I'm wondering if Clem had it all wrong. Maybe we aren't all mages."

Irene groaned, turning her sun-kissed face up to the warm autumn sky as we made our way up the Main Street.

She wasn't the only one who put a lot of stock in Clementine's fervent beliefs. I drew a sense of power from it, even if it felt like I was being pushed around by some invisible force. I think because I didn't know why I'd been nudged this way and that. It still filled life with discovery and made me believe I wasn't another speck in the sand. It made me believe I had purpose.

Now I wouldn't say Victor's potential as a mage made me toss out the concept of the Balance like Irene wanted to do. But I was also wondering if the Balance was quite what she made it out to be. After all, Victor wasn't really showing any inclination towards being a wolf and I thought she made it sound like that sort of thing carried over from one generation to the next. That we all projected the magic somehow and for us it was in the form of a wolf. But maybe the Balance choose differently for Victor?

"I don't know," I sighed. Every time I felt like I was starting to figure this town out, something new questioned my understanding and started me back at the beginning. "I mean, the whole concept of the border and the call for Bodies is based in the Balance, right? Even if Graham doesn't want to admit it."

"Yes," said Armand with a nod. "You'll find most mages actually agreed on a lot of the Balance's doctrine, just not in the context that people like Clementine put it in. Mages do consider themselves conduits for a magic that permeates every atom in the universe. However, most thing we are just tapping into a supply like we would tap into water. The water isn't actively trying to affect us. It's there and we need to use it. The Balance preaches that we live in harmony with ourselves and the magic surrounding us."

"And how does the call support that though?" asked Irene, sounding more defeated than I've ever heard her before. "I mean what is my fucking purpose?"

She roars with frustration and I see Victor tense ahead of us. He'd kept quiet the whole way, but at least I knew he was listening to us.

"In regards to the call and the Balance," continued the mage as if the young woman walking next to him wasn't a ticking time bomb of rage, "don't overthink it. The town wants five humans at any given time to be residents. So there's a balance to maintain in that. Now what is less certain is how the call selects the Bodies. I've been studying this spell, which I hate to admit, is a rather masterful piece of work that I will only give credit to Hen's ancestors and not her loathsome father. That being said, there is an effort in the spell to seek someone who has given up on life, who needs a second chance and could easily leave society. Beyond that, there isn't an effort to specify a need to have so many feeders, mages, wolves, etc."

"I guess that's why I'm useless," said Irene, now deflated having shifted from anger to depression. "The only offer I've had is to be Antonov's wife. I suppose if the magic that brought me here didn't have a greater goal, I should just take what I can get. I wonder if I ask around if I could be a vessel for someone. They seem to have plenty of leeway with their life when they aren't being possessed and from what I here, vessels are usually ignorant of what the ghost does when they are possessed, so it will just be like falling asleep."

"I suppose," I said, uncertain Irene could really relinquish large portions of her day, or even whole days, to someone else. Not that I judge anyone for being a vessel, but Irene has a vibrance and energy that can't be contained. It felt like she needed to be her own person to thrive and I wasn't sure being vessel was the best option for that.

"What else am I supposed to?" She grumbled, a tinge of anger in her voice. "Marry Antonov and have his babies? Now that Natasha is good and dead, and Zelda can't have any more kids, all he has is Scarlett and who knows if that will be enough for him. He'll need another... Oh no, what if that's why the Balance brought me here? What if I was always intended to be a vampire baby incubator?!"