Sandabury Academy

The Truth (Part 2)

Watching the President walk up to us clad in his classy gentleman's suit without a scratch on him and asking of our whereabouts leaves me dumbstruck. Thankfully, Terry picks up on this and addresses the President on my behalf.

"Yea we're all good Mr. President. You seem to be fairing alright yourself." I can hear the cautious tone in Terry's voice.

"So it would seem," was the only reply forthcoming. Crossing his arms, it is evident the President has sensed the tense atmosphere.

"That's good-." I cut off Terry's pitiful attempt at small talk after having regained my voice.

"We have a few questions for you, Mr. President." He looks at me with that same knowing look in his eyes that Jacques had when he first took in my appearance. That's a strike.

"Could this wait? It would seem the Doppelgangers the Overseer Council sent are not fairing quite as well as I have," he states, gaze landing pointedly on Terry.

I sigh and hold up my hand in the 'hold on a second' gesture before turning around to see the remaining Doppelganger facing off against the Vrock and an Imp. I excuse myself from the two men before me and am in front of the Vrock in the next moment, my dagger protruding from its chest. Then the Imp screeches in pain and falls to the ground. Seconds later I am standing once again in front of the two men, the last Doppelganger having fallen right before I dispatched the demons.

"Do you have time for us now, Dante?" My impatience is evident.

The President nods curtly and we all walk over the other side of a nearby hill so as to remain out of sight for when more demons inevitably pop out of the portal.

"First things first, what exactly have you been up to this whole time? You don't even have a mark on you." I give him a once over to accentuate my point.

"Yea, did you not realize the teachers and students have been looking for you?" Terry adds.

"I had some of the Overseer Council's Doppelgangers come to campus to help maintain the situation until more help arrived. Alas, here you are." The President finishes his last sentence while staring directly at me instead of addressing both Terry and I. That's another strike.

"We ran into Jacques before we ended up over here. He said some pretty interesting things about you." The tension is rolling off of Terry in waves.

"He says you knew I may have been a hybrid all along and that you summoned Jaheara here yourself," I say matter of factually.

"Ah so that's what this is all about," the President mutters with an uncharacteristic grin. "So according to you, this is all my fault?"

Suddenly, the President's face darkens along with the air surrounding him before he is once again hovering above us in mid-air. He stares down at us with his arms crossed.

"You'd think it would take more than one telepathic Overseer to try and tell you that this is all my doing. Especially considering I'm the one that took you in when no one else would. I'm the one that showed you the real world that you live in. I'm the one that gave your life meaning!" As the President is giving his speech, the wind starts to pick up, whipping around leaves, debris, and ashes from nearby fires.

"You're right!" I call up to the warlock. "I was skeptical of Jacques words at first, but then again his heartbeat never once skipped a beat while he told his story. You may be a powerful magic user, but you are still human. Oh and, I never said anything about this portal being your fault."

The President's eyes narrow at my accusation. Then he suddenly starts laughing. It's slow at first and then builds up to that of a mad man. Terry and I look at each other, not knowing how to handle this side of the President.

Finally, he stops and our attention returns to his floating form.

"It would seem as though my mouth has gotten the better of me. Well done, Valerie, for using my own assumptions against me." The wind speed is holding steady now instead of increasing.

"So Jacques was right..." Terry mutters to himself while the President and I's eyes remain locked onto one another.

"At least do me the honor of telling me the truth. You owe Jaheara that much, if she is still alive," I call up to the floating figure over the sound of the blowing wind.

"Very well," the President replies after dropping the wind speed slightly so that he wouldn't have to yell anymore.

"I did summon Jaheara to our world, but I was seeking a much more powerful demon, not just some fire elemental weakling."

"Why?" Terry's voice calls from my right before I have a chance to stop him, knowing it was not wise to interrupt the President's explanation.

A lightening bolt strikes the ground inches from Terry's feet followed by the President's now magically amplified voice crying out in anger.

"DO NOT INTERRUPT ME! YOU ARE NOT WORTHY TO EVEN BE IN OUR PRESENCE!"

Terry immediately looks at me and I give him a slight nod. He moves over so that he is standing right next to me as the President resumes his speech in his normal voice, ignoring Terry's minor act of defiance.

"You see, I graduated from this very academy the top of my class and yet all I received was a more elaborately decorated plaque. No one really understood my level of academic excellence, or Jacques'. So, I made it a point to always stand out, which is why I convinced Jacques to join the Overseer Council with me. And he only wanted to be a teacher, ha! Look at him now- one of the most revered members of the Overseer Council. All thanks to me...." The President pauses for a moment, a faraway look in his eyes, before continuing.

"Those bastards were going to kick me out for tampering with inter-dimensional portal magic. They said it was too risky so I left before they had the chance, those narrow-minded buffoons. But I couldn't let that be the end of the great Dante Viero Visichi, no! After many heated debates, they allowed me to become the President of this academy as long as my portal magic days were behind me. Naturally, this life quickly started to bore me for I no longer had access to the many resources of the Council. So, one day I happened across news of a wandering vampire with no history or family to speak of and decided to pursue you after conducting research and discovering you could be a hybrid. Keeping you in my little pocket, I continued tampering with portal magic in secret until I could finally test it."

"Then out popped Jaheara where I happened to cross paths with her, finding a page out of your notes that you accidentally left behind in the process," I piped up cautiously.

"Precisely. Having gained the attention of the Overseer Council, they sent Doppelgangers to investigate where I have since gained control of them and used them for my own personal needs. They really are quite handy." The look on the President's face is rather smug.

"So what about all this shit?" I question in reference to the portal behind us. "Figured you could make use of Jaheara after all?"

The President's smirk grows into a full on smile, telling me my assumption is completely accurate.

"Rather suspicious for a weakling fire elemental to be able to stay on our plane for so long without my magical aid, wouldn't you agree?"

I answer him with silence. A low rumble starts up, coming from the direction of the portal.

"Turns out our little elemental is actually the Demon King's daughter from the darkest depths of the Abyss itself. And Daddy isn't happy that his little girl is missing. The energy was already there, all I had to do was give the portal a little push and there you have it," he calmly says while pointing at the now heavily rumbling portal.

"His abrupt summoning must have caused her to suffer from amnesia," I whisper to Terry quickly and he nods in response.

"If only I had realized how valuable she was sooner!" The President calls out over the thunderous sound coming from the portal.

That's when Terry and I actually turn around to face the source of the rumbling. The last thing I expected to see was the Demon King himself stepping through the portal with the President's maniacal laughter filling my ears behind me.