A very proper looking gentleman was standing before a pair of ornamental doors. He spent a moment to gather his thoughts and wits, while combing his hand through his dark hair before announcing his presence with a soft knock. There was no answer but the door opened by itself, letting the man inside. The room was decorated with a lot of expensive and unique art, while most of the floors were covered in pillows used for sitting. Most of the furniture was intricately carved noble wood. After verifying the position of the master of the room, he went on one knee, with his eyes closed, waiting for his master to acknowledge his presence.
After few minutes his master's deep voice could be heard. "Rise Asahim, and state your business."
Asahim rose and took a look at his master Hassan-i-Sabbah. Master was playing a game of Qadesh, while on the other side of the game board was an opponent that could only be described as an indistinct gathering of air. Asahim wasn't sure if the opponent was an air elemental, or if the opponent was simply using magic to keep his identity a secret. The latter one would be a useless effort against the master's skill of course. Master was just about to take his turn and Asahim didn't want to interrupt, but he couldn't delay either.
"Master, Lord Malik has sent word. He has found someone that matches your specifications." Asahim said in a quiet voice.
Asahim was shocked to see his master's hand freeze in the air for a moment, giving an almost imperceptible shudder that could've been from excitement. Master finished placing his piece on the board, and gave a small wave with his hand, dismissing the indistinct form of his opponent. This again shocked Asahim. The news was important enough to make master interrupt his game?
"Have you confirmed this?" Master asked now looking straight at Asahim.
"To the best of my ability." He replied, which caused a raised eye-brow from master, prompting him to continue.
"The specifications mentioned by master are all present, but there are…discrepancies." He hurried to explain.
"Elaborate." Master said simply.
"The individual in question is less than five years old, exceeding the boundaries set by master. She is a psion as specified and has high level regenerative abilities just as specified, due to her heritage as a Beowulf." Asahim started listing things off.
"A Beowulf? Excellent, that will fit our purposes perfectly. Their regenerative abilities are among the best, losing only to trolls and elementals that have access to concentrated mass of their own element to repair themselves. The specific type of regeneration also makes the individual in question easier to work on. You mentioned discrepancies?" The master asked, prompting Asahim to continue.
"Indeed, this is where it gets a little weird. Despite being so young, the child seems to already have psionic power matching a class 2 psion. Someone has definitely trained her foundations well, as she seems to be able to regenerate her pool of power in a matter of hours, which makes her rank only barely below master on that front. Her heritage beyond being a Beowulf is unclear and I was unable to fully figure it out. Her base race seems to be a mix formed mostly of a Rakshasa Rani while she also has a strong influence of a kitsune. There also seem to be other things mixed in that are still dormant." Asahim explained, his voice betraying some uncertainty.
Master Sabbah thought for a while, obviously trying to consider all possibilities. "So. We have found a project that someone else has already started. The training suggests a good master, who might or might not be looking for her. Luckily the one responsible for creating her is most likely not going to come looking after her."
"Master?" Asahim inquired with slight confusion.
"The combination of races suggests a demonic origin, as all the races mentioned so far are ones that are counted among the demonic races. I think we have stumbled upon one of the abandoned projects of the now destroyed thirteen hells. The timing fits relatively well too. I think the purge might have set her loose, and her master picked her up somewhere and brought her here to keep her out of the hands of Paradisia. How they got separated again is a mystery, but I don't think it will cause us problems. I assume Malik made sure no one knows that we have her?" The master asked an obvious question, and didn't really expect an answer. Lord Malik was one of the smarter underlings they had.
The master continued. "Have Malik watch over her, and work as her handler. We'll start working on her immediately. This might work even better than I had hoped for. Not only does she meet my specifications, she exceeds them and most likely by a lot."
Asahim had rarely seen his master smile like this. The only times he'd seen that smile before was when one of masters enemies fell under his blade. "Master, can I ask a question?"
"With news like this, how could I not share some of the happiness? Speak." The master replied almost jovially.
"Why someone like her?" The Zabaniya were the most notorious and effective group of assassins in the entirety of Pantheon. They often trained and used child assassins, but master's desire to find someone like the specimen they had now found went beyond that. He wasn't interested in normal child operatives since their effectiveness was limited, but had spent a lot of time both searching and preparing for a specimen like this.
"I assume I don't need to explain the psion part?" Master asked a little rhetorically.
"I can think of two obvious reasons. Firstly their ability to avoid detection and secondly their improved intelligence." Asahim answered immediately.
"As usual, you are half correct but also half wrong. Not that I'm too surprised since the amount of proper psions is so small, so your mistake is understandable. Psions are great for avoiding detection, but that's only part of it. What makes their powers so useful is their versatility. They can have the close combat prowess of warriors and can rain death from afar well enough to rival mages. Of course such versatility has its limits. Mages for example are able to do much more than just throw bigger and bigger fireballs. Mages can create things than can last for millennia, while you will not see a psion do anything like that. Of course, the psions have their own advantages, but I digress.
As for improved intelligence you're not wrong but you're missing something. The mind of a psion works faster than others and they have a better memory, but that's only as useful as the person using that ability. That doesn't mean they can make the right decisions. That is something that comes with experience, age and instinct. What makes them useful is their ability to learn quickly. It might take you years to absorb the necessary knowledge to make good decision, while it would take days or weeks for them.
But you're not entirely wrong either. Their versatile toolkits and quick minds are what make them dangerous in our line of work, when combined with their ability avoid most detection. How about the part about regenerative abilities? Have you figured that part out yet?" Master asked, ending his little lecture. He could get a little heated at times something caught his attention. On the plus side, this also drove him into perfecting whatever caught his eye.
Asahim gave a small but nasty smile. "I'm guessing were going to rebuild her."
"Almost right. We aren't going to just rebuild her; we're going to upgrade her. We're going to forge her into our little masterpiece. We're going to take up the work someone has already started and improve upon it, forging her into a blade we can point at enemies that we normally couldn't touch. I am too obvious of a blade myself, so instead we're going to forge a hidden weapon that we can pull out when necessary, and deny even having afterwards. And of course we wanted a child so we can start the forging process early." Master replied.
Asahim was already considering all the plans he had seen master make, and could already see the direction this was going. His smile widened a little. He did not envy the future that little child had waiting for her.
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Haydee watched from her cell as another kid was taken out to be disposed of. This one was clearly still alive, but as often happened here, the child had given up. The child's vacant eyes stared unfocused at the walls. It was clear that there was nothing going on behind those eyes anymore. Judging by the appearance, this one was a male human, but sometimes it was hard to tell in this place. It was often more dangerous to be female in this place, so some changed their looks and behavior to appear male.
On rare occasion there was a master or a guard that took a fancy to kids. It was not very common but it happened. It was hard to avoid completely in a facility like this, which was filled with children of various races in training. The place was also filled with people of dubious moral character. Girls were in more danger than boys, but not by much. There were sickos who diddled both boys and girls, as well as those who simply preferred boys. None of those types lasted very long though.