In the dawn of The Rebirth Period, a new species of humans dominates the Earth. Abhorring the languages of the Ancients--the Homo sapiens--they establish a universal tongue and call it The Standard. In this coming of age story, Rayne isn't the average 17 year old. To everyone in her colony, she's less. In the early hours of their second birthday, the Homo praestans experience the Luminescence and awaken to a mystical ability. But the Luminescence never came to Rayne that night. Her peers mock her, most of her colony shuns her, her adoptive father is embarrassed by her existence, and her adoptive mother is apathetic towards her at best. On her 17th birthday, she awakens from a night which she never should have experienced. She is convinced it will change her life for the better. When she confides in her parents, they force her to keep the thing which finally makes her normal a secret in fear of how their governing Board members will react. And when the Luminescence comes to her a second time, her longing to be normal is now a shattered dream. Desperate to learn why this is happening to her 15 years late, she soon realizes the answers lie beyond her colony, in the capitol. If anyone has the answers, the Board will. But before her chance ever comes, she's involved in a deadly incident which threatens the life of another. As her world unravels, she becomes even more of an outcast. Once longing for purpose and belonging in her colony, she's now desperate to leave the only life she's ever known in hopes of uncovering the reason for it all, and to discover if there are others out there who are just like her.