With the help of Master Cain, Cyrene had gone from the level 2 blind Oracle abandoned at a Royal Banquet to a Lamia Warseer in just a few short days. Honestly, they've been the happiest of her young life. Up until this point, things had just gone from bad to worse for her.
When she was born, she had the Oracle class active, along with the curse that blinds all Oracles. Being a newborn isn't easy, and their mind is entirely undeveloped. Unable to see, speak or even properly move, she had been bombarded with the most horrific of visions every waking second of every day until her second birthday.
That's when she realized that her body was not the nightmare, the visions were, and she started trying to move around that other world of darkness.
It didn't go well at first; unlike other infants, she had never tried to move about. Because she had been trapped in a nightmare world of visions, it had never even occurred to get a a possibility.
Being the sickly child of a set of triplets who were all born prematurely, she spent most of that time with a nanny. Not that she had any idea such a person existed. She only knew that food appeared in the darkness sometimes, so she took what she could until it stopped coming.
The visions didn't end long enough the first few years for her to hear anyone, so her family assumed her to be blind and deaf. But her father was holding on to the hope of healing her, if they could just find a suitable specialist class.
Until then, they decided that being born with a class was of no consequence. After all, being blind and deaf as they thought she was from the complications of her birth, how could she interact with the world, much less advance?
They were a family of merchants, not warriors. Helping her was viewed by the other members of her generation as nothing more than creating one more competitor for their inheritance.
As she slowly grew from a toddler to a preteen, Cyrene spent more time in the dark world, away from the Horrors of the visions, and embraced the nothingness of her bedroom with only a bed sitting on the floor and padded walls, arranged that way so she didn't hurt herself trying to get out.
The Governess assigned to feed and wash her soon realized that the girl was neither deaf nor dumb, at least not when she wasn't having a vision. So she taught young Cyrene how to behave as a lady should, to remain silent so she wouldn't be criticized and how to make a polite smile when others are around.
But her siblings would never allow her to succeed and claim precious family resources they viewed as their own. So when nobody was watching, they would beat her without warning.
The pain would trigger visions, and Cyrene could never convince anyone but the Governess that the pain wasn't part of the vision. Her complaints were dismissed as confusion or simply insanity.
So went her entire childhood; she often met other Nobles and put on her best unfortunate but kind act to gain their sympathy, hoping to find someone who would listen. But they never really understood, so no matter how many times her siblings would leave her in random places when her father ordered them to bring her along, she would always end up getting an escort back home.
She sometimes got notifications; they would ding when they arrived and a voice saying [New Notification]. At first, they were just annoying, then one day, when she was about five years old, she lost her temper and shouted, "just tell me what they say."
That was the correct answer. The system read through every notification she had ever gotten, one at a time. It took days and most had already expired, but it ended with an option.
[Switch to Audio Interface? Yes or No]
"Yes!"
[Think or say Interface to have the menu options read to you. Think or say Skills to hear your skill options. Think or say Tutorial to listen to the basic configuration options.]
Going through it all took her weeks, but eventually, she had the interface configured to tell her who caused her damage and how much. That changed her childhood, she could now say for sure who bullied her, and her father took her word after the first time she showed him a fresh bruise and could match it to a person and location.
Her siblings only hated her more for it, but after that most memorable punishment they got more subtle with their bullying, which was a great relief to Cyrene.
Then one day, her father insisted she attend a Royal Banquet on the off chance that her pretty face might draw a suitor of some sort. According to her mother, if she waited any longer, every noble her age would be married and she would be a burden to the family forever.
Her mother insisted if she couldn't find a partner soon, her options would be either a single and dependant life or to be traded into a business partner's harem to sweeten a deal.
The day's talk at the banquet was mostly about how a Duke named Cain had turned a Royal Inscriptionist into a female Orc as a prank. But the quieter whispers said that Nyxx was happier that way.
That struck a chord with Cyrene; there was nothing she wouldn't give to be herself. Nothing at all.
After she was abandoned yet again at the Banquet, she was found by a man who had the Aura of a monster. Not a vampire or anything so mundane, but the sort of being that the other monsters in her visions ran from on sight.
He didn't send her away with some servant, back to her home. Instead, he took her to his table at the banquet. There she felt the most wondrous aura, belonging to a Priestess of the Demon Gods. She had seen her in many visions before this, since this woman's actions alongside the one with the monstrous aura kept changing the likely outcomes of the futures she had seen.
In the best visions, the Priestess has wings, beautiful and soft ones granted by the god of magic. When Cyrene hugged the woman who introduced herself as Misha, she was granted another vision of them together in a room she didn't know.
Cyrene couldn't see herself in the vision since it was shown through her own eyes, but they talked happily about life, and Cyrene heard Misha say that she lived in the next room.
What else could that vision mean except that they were the very best of friends?
Cyrene tried to explain it, but she feared it came out wrong, going by the giggles from the ladies nearby. But these people waited with her until it was clear nobody was coming for her then took her to their home.
Master Cain, for that's how she felt his aura defined him, was kind enough to let her stay and even told her that he would help her.
He even gave her a skill called [Sonar] that let her see nearby things in a basic way. Her sisters had told her that such a thing was impossible. Skill books were practically myths, according to them. Cyrene had no way to know that the school they went to taught them dozens of basic skills once they activated their interfaces just after they reached puberty. It wasn't something that anyone in her home talked about.
The next day, Cyrene woke up to a vision, one where she was cared for and loved. Part of an actual family. Her mind latched on to that vision and refused to let go, desperate to be near anyone who would treat her that kindly.
After eating, Cain and Misha took her out to see his city, and Cyrene realized that her new best friend was just like her. They both worshiped the being known as Cain that the vision said would take care of her. She would say man, but that word implied human in her mind, and she was certain that he was much more than any human she had met.
She wasn't sure what happened in the dungeon they went to; she obeyed Cain's order to sit down, and then everything was faded in to a haze of pure bliss and the ringing of incoming notifications. When she came to, her new [Sonar] ability showed that Misha and the most adorable snake girl were watching over her, and she had gained a hundred and seventy levels.
The snake was so friendly and cuddly that Cyrene wished she could keep her around as a pet. So when she had the option, she asked Cain to make her into such an adorable creature. If she was adorable like that, surely her vision of a loving home would come true.
Then Cyrene remembered Misha's first reaction when she told her that she wanted the sort of life the Priestess, officially of the Infernal Arbiter class, had with Cain.
"I have entrusted Cain with my everything. I belong to him, mind, body, and soul. I'm not sure I can explain it properly; he's my everything." Misha had told her. But Cyrene, now in her new Lamia body with her sight restored and an upgraded class, understood.
Everything she has, he gave her. From her body to her level, class, and sight, everything that made life worth living was a gift from him.
They discussed the topic half the night, and Cyrene impressed Misha with her Devotion. Enough that she even let the newly transformed Lamia into their bedroom the next morning to watch Cain sleep while Misha got ready for the day.
When Cain smoothed things over with her father, one of the two family members who were genuinely kind to her, it was all she could do not to throw herself at him and hug him senseless.
She only managed to restrain herself because her father might misunderstand and think her Devotion was something as cheap and passing as Romantic Attraction.
So tomorrow she will be going with Cain and Misha to the Royal Palace while he takes care of some business, then they'll visit her grandma, the other family member who was always kind to her.
He said she could stay behind if she wanted, and they'd come to get her after the meetings, but the palace is full of shameless women. How could she risk leaving him alone around women who don't understand his divine benevolence? Or even worse, ones who don't care about him at all and only feel lust.
Completely Unacceptable.
