Devotedly

Iris was born into a world which was reluctant to treat her kindly. Her Mother was foolish, and her father? A mere conman. He fled after hearing of Iris'  birth when the two were not yet married, leaving her in the hands of a mother who appeared to curse the child for all her misfortunes. They lived in the South Fields district with her Uncle, upon the island of Sutica. Her mother was a tailor, often making the trip to the Central District and leaving Iris with her Uncle,  a woodwork in the area. Her life was peaceful, even if neglected by her mother, for at the very least, her Uncle was kind, and would amuse her with small toys made from wood and stories of his previous ventures in different areas of the city.

When Iris was nine, she noticed her mother had been coming home later each day. Others too noticed such, and mocked the family, bringing shame to them, whispering of the Mother sleeping with yet another manipulative man. Iris refused to believe such a thing, of course, even should she be impressionable, until, her Mother had stopped coming home at all. She was seen around the clock district with a man who had been a customer, and then, the notion of it became a little harder to wave off. Even her Uncle had kept Iris from the outside, filling her schedule with chores, for what she assumed to be his shame of her, though, just weeks after she had turned ten, she snuck outside in what was an act of rebellion. What she found was a hideous sight, an approaching hoard of undead to the south fields, attacking the district. Instead of fleeing as any ordinary person should, she found herself frozen in place, merely staring into the distance, until the distance became not so distant. The fighting was close enough for her to feel the breath of the undead on her flesh, and only then, did her Uncle notice from the workshop's window. In an act to save her from this threat, with his saw as a weapon, he dived to behead the one closest, and yelled for her to get back inside. If she had done so sooner, he might've lived longer. Still frozen, and with her Uncle's knees buckling from wear and tear of his profession, she found the Clerics upon the field. Upon seeing their ease against the undead, she found her feet, and ran to the house. It was only after the fighting was done that her uncle was recorded 'dead', for he was no fighter, and only a craftsman. She was at a loss, for she was a child, and without a mother or father, she had no clue of what to do.

A week later, with her fate being decided, there was a knock at her door. Upon opening it, she found her mother was there, smiling as though happy, perched on the arm of another man. That man, turned out to be her birth-father, and though she cursed him for what he had done, she found reconciliation with her mother once more, and spent her time learning of Tahariae and the clerics, before setting to venture and discover more from beyond the district she had spent her younger life in.