As Selvaria stepped through the gateway, a feeling of safety washed over her. She looked at the sleeping bundle in her arms. She had managed to bring the baby back to good health on the way, although there hadn't really been anything wrong with the baby beyond malnourishment and being exhausted. The baby had been hidden for a while but was fundamentally healthy.
Selvaria hoped that the baby had not seen anything too gruesome and that she would forget anything that she had seen or heard. That seemed unlikely though, as the minds of psions worked differently than normal children. They understood more, and forgot less. They would also mature earlier and faster, given the chance and proper stimulus. Nevertheless she hoped the baby's mind was still too young to remember.
Now what to do? They were relatively safe here, as this was a pocket dimension created by Selvaria, and thus was wholly under her control. It was connected to the outside by the gateway she had come through, and there was no other way to enter. The only other way to exit would require a lengthy magical ceremony. She looked at her home. It was a relatively large building with narrow pathways connecting to many other gateways that allowed access to other parts of the pocket dimension. She wasn't the only inhabitant, but she was someone that kept the others safe.
"Home sweet home." The androgynous voice came from her chest. Selvaria gave a small chuckle as she pulled a small silver colored pendant from beneath her blouse.
"So what are you going to do with the baby? I've never known you to be the motherly type. You could give her to be raised by one of your little pet projects." The pendant hummed a bit as the androgynous voice asked the question, indicating that the voice was coming from the pendant.
"While that is a possibility, I think I need to do it myself. If she ever wants to leave this place, she needs to be trained or the angels will easily hunt her down. The people I've saved are all good people, but the reason I had to save them in the first place, was that they didn't have the power or the skill to protect themselves. Most of them didn't want to learn either." Selvaria replied a little frustrated.
This pocket dimension housed an entire planet, albeit a small one, and a small sun. Selvaria was one of the few mages powerful enough to create something like it. She also had a habit of rescuing women and girls that were in desperate situation. Women that weren't able to protect themselves, no home and no safe haven. Some of them had been slaves, some were forced to work as prostitutes, and some were simply beaten and battered to a point where they had already given up on life.
Selvaria helped these women, and brought them to this pocket dimension to heal mentally and physically. Some left after they found their bearings, and she tried to give them a new start in a better place, while most stayed. There was no danger here, simply peace and quiet, and that was what most of these women needed the most.
These women of various races formed villages and communities, farming their own food and hunting game. Selvaria would provide for them, but the women saw self-sufficiency as a form of healing. Something to regain their own place in the universe. Since men were most often the cause of the trouble Selvaria had saved them from, there were no men here. That was part of the reason why some chose to leave. These women would be able to help the baby grow, and would most likely welcome the presence of a child, but they would not be able to provide her with the skills she would need to survive outside this safe haven. Unlike the other women, the baby was a demon and would be hunted again.
"Can you do it? I mean, you are a powerful mage, and you aren't a stranger to warrior skills, but that's different from raising a psion." The voice from the pendant asked.
"One would think you'd know better than to underestimate me at this point. I wasn't one of the top teachers and researchers of the Assembly for nothing. I've trained a couple of psions before, and I know the methods they need to use to increase their power." Selvaria replied a little insulted.
The Assembly was the third of the four factions involved in The War in Heavens. While the thirteen hells commanded those with demonic blood in their veins, and the angels of Paradisia commanded those with the blood of angels, the Assembly accepted members of any race with enough power to qualify. It was the most diverse of the four factions.
"Then we return to my original point. You're not exactly motherly. I'm pretty sure she'll die at some point because you got lost in some research or another and forgot to feed her." The voice pointed out.
"I resent that implication!" Selvaria huffed. The voice was right though. She did have the habit of forgetting everything else while lost in the intricate problems that research presented. That was one of the reasons why she did it. That all-consuming focus allowed her to get away from the guilt that plagued her. It was also one of the reasons why the women she protected had wanted to become self-sufficient. They knew they'd starve otherwise.
"Maybe you should at least invite one or two of the women to live with you. They can help with the baby, while you can handle the training. I doubt you're keen on changing diapers either." The voice said with barely concealed mirth.
"Fine! Have it your way. If I'm such a bad parent, maybe I do need help! It's obvious the poor me can't handle raising a child, after all I'm only smart enough to be the best researcher in the whole Assembly! The simple act of raising a child is naturally beyond my abilities!" She huffed sarcastically. She did follow the advice though.
"What shall we call the baby? I doubt she'd be happy if we just use baby, hey, you, child and dammit when we talk to her." The voice asked, trying to change the subject a bit, as it knew it had won that debate.
"We'll name her Haydee. I always found that name beautiful, and it doesn't sound too demonic." Selvaria sighed.
"Dee or DeeDee it is then." The voice said with finality, already solidifying the nicknames.
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The next few years were full of surprises to Selvaria. She was happy and sad to discover that Dee had indeed inherited the typical psion penchant for having a much better understanding much earlier than normal children. Dee absorbed information like a sponge, even if she didn't talk much. Selvaria could see the light of understanding in her golden feline eyes even when she was only few months old. As soon as Dee could manage it, she would prop herself up in a sitting position against a stack of books or something similar, and simply observed what Selvaria was doing. At first the girl had a look of confusion on her foxlike features, but soon it turned into understanding and curiosity.
Selvaria developed a habit of giving small explanations on whatever she was doing, and Dee seemed to understand and learn. While normal babies would either sleep most of the time, or stare at anything brightly colored, Dee could spend hours doing nothing but watching Selvaria work. Not that she was completely unlike normal babies in the fact that she too spent a lot of time asleep, but Dee seemed all too happy to forgo sleep if there was something interesting to observe.
She was almost excessively easy as a baby too. She never cried except to announce that it was time to provide some food, or to inform others of a mess she had made. Dee seemed to get some odd enjoyment from only announcing the aforementioned mess, when only Selvaria was there to deal with it. Apparently she realized that it made Selvaria uncomfortable, and was teasing her in a very basic way. She didn't have anything against the women that were glad to help, but Selvaria was special.
When it came to her race, Haydee looked like a mix between a kitsune and a high ranking Rakshasa Rani. Normal rakshasa were magical feline demons with humanoid bodies and heads of lions and tigers. Sometimes their bodies were covered in fur, sometimes not depending on the particular type. Rakshasa Rani or Raja, depending on gender, were in general much stronger and powerful, and had four arms instead of two. Rakshasa usually possessed wicked intelligence, and were among the most dangerous mages and warriors among the various demons races. It made sense that whoever had been part of making Haydee had used a Rakshasa Rani as a base for further changes, since the race provided a strong base for almost anything.
Despite Selvaria's attempts, she had not managed to discover anything further about changes made to Haydee, and would most likely be unsuccessful until those changes came out of dormancy. Currently Haydee looked like a Rakshasa Rani, except with the head of a fox instead of a lion or tiger, her body covered in snow white fur and she had a pair of fluffy little tails waving behind her wherever she moved. A year after starting her life with Selvaria, Dee seemed to discover a way to make her extra pair of arms appear and disappear at will, to the amusement of her and the intelligent pendant that had befriended the little girl.