In a galaxy where souls are finite, birth is a privilege—and death is a transaction.

Centuries into the future, after surviving apocalyptic tragedies to achieve incredible longevity and explosive colonization beyond Earth, humanity faces a crisis no one saw coming. Few believed in reincarnation until the unthinkable happened: the soul supply ran dry. And the wars fought over the ultimate natural resource only made matters worse. The United Solar Systems now dictates every aspect of life—from reproduction and culture to the very definition of identity. Legacy is everything. And those without it? They barely exist.

Ripley Thomsen shouldn’t even be here.

As a Newborn—a soul passed down through a lottery system without power or prestige—Ripley beat impossible odds to earn a place at the galaxy’s most storied university, a haven of elite minds and ancient secrets. An outsider among Legacies, he’s used to being underestimated. But when he stumbles across a strange, half-empty red leather journal and experiences a vivid, unexplainable vision, everything changes.

The visions feel like memories even though that’s impossible. And the blank pages are trying to tell him something—something hidden, something dangerous, something that could unravel the very mystery of the soul crisis itself.

Soon, Ripley is swept into a secret world of forbidden knowledge and forgotten lives, drawn together with a sharp-tongued rebel from the Outskirts, a magnetic redhead with too many secrets, and a charming prankster who knows how to keep people laughing while the system burns around them. As the group begins to decode the past—and themselves—they discover they may be more connected than they ever imagined.

But they’re not the only ones searching. And the truth buried in the journal could destroy more than just the University—it could tear apart reality itself.

Somewhere between science and soul, the future is waiting to be rewritten.