In Ether District, souls are currency—and Asher Vale is the broker.

He doesn’t ask questions. He doesn’t get attached. He sells memories—painful ones, precious ones, even the ones people were never supposed to forget. For the right price, anyone can erase their past.

But when a forbidden memory resurfaces in Asher’s mind—one he never knew he lost—everything changes.

Now hunted by forces that shouldn’t exist, haunted by a past he doesn’t remember, and tangled in a conspiracy that stretches beyond life and death, Asher must uncover the truth:

Who stole his soul—and why does the fate of humanity depend on him remembering?

This is not just a story of redemption.
It’s a war for identity.
A chase for forgotten light.
And at the center of it all;
A soul auctioneer who was never meant to survive.

They didn't go back to the hideout. There was nothing left to hide.


Asher and Eden walked through Ether District like ghosts returned from the dead, alive but changed. The Bliss that once pulsed through the city's veins now felt colder, emptier. And he could feel it. Every capsule. Every memory. Every scream buried in silence.


"Are you sure we can trust him?" Eden asked as they crossed into a neon-lit alley humming with surveillance drones.


"No," Asher muttered, "but I'm not looking for trust. I'm looking for leverage."


They reached the door. A red spiral painted on the frame. It wasn't a gang sign. It was a promise. If you entered, you left your secrets behind.


Eden hesitated. "The Spiral Collective?"


Asher nodded. "They've wanted to burn Bliss down for years. We just brought the match."


Half the room was filled with memory junkies. Some laughing hysterically at phantom traumas, others rocking in corners, mumbling truths no one else could bear. And in the center stood an old woman with eyes like broken glass.


Eden tensed. "You knew we were coming?"


"I knew someone would be stupid enough to challenge the system. I just didn't know he'd be wearing Soul Auctioneer boots."


Asher stepped forward. "We have data. Capsule IDs. Proof of what Bliss is doing, and where it's going."


She grinned. "We already knew that, boy. What we need is a way to make people care."


Eden crossed her arms. "And you have that?"


The woman turned. A boy stepped forward from the back, looked quite like someone in his mid teenage years, wearing a rusted neural scanner and a crooked smile. He looked scared and brave all at once.


"This is Juno," the woman said. "He remembers everything. Even the trades. Even the pain."


"He's a Recorder," Asher breathed. "Those were outlawed."


"Exactly," the woman said. "And he's your proof. Bliss can be reversed. Not erased. If people hear what Juno remembers, the world changes."


Juno stepped forward and looked Asher in the eye.


"They tried to take my soul," he said. "But they forgot, I don't forget."


And suddenly, Asher saw it. The goal. The mission. Not just to destroy Bliss, but to resurrect what it buried.


Chapter 11 - Chapter 10| A War of Ghosts