{ELEMENTISTS OF WILLOW FOREST BOOK V} The Journey Across Water

Starting

3: Starting

Sasha slammed her hands down on the table triumphantly. "I remember absolutely nothing of the first six years of my life, which I'm afraid is the only time I lived with my parents, so if you're looking for answers there you're getting none."

Olivia simply laughed.

Sasha scowled. "No, really."

Olivia kept laughing.

"No memories, no photos, nothing."

Still, nothing but laughter. Seriously, how stupid did Sasha think she was?

"WHAT?" Sasha protested.

"If you claim you know nothing," Olivia said, "Then I will be exceedingly more than happy to fill in the gaps for you."

Sasha stared at her blankly.

"Your name is Sasha Brunner." Olivia began.

"Obviously." Sasha snorted.

"Your parents are, or were, Bruce and Jane Brunner."

That shut Sasha up.

"Bruce was an IT Consultant and part-time chess player. Jane was the PA of someone who was the deputy of someone who was the assistant of someone who owned a major processing company. They met in a bus shelter on their way to work, and a year later Bruce proposed to Jane in the same place."

Sasha just kept staring.

"Although Bruce was the direct descendant of Aodh, he didn't know it." Olivia continued. "Unlike Hephzibah, where every generation the daughter is an Elementist who becomes the Guardian of the Greenwood, the son from every generation of Aodh's family isn't necessarily an Elementist, so doesn't know about our world or take the title of the Burner. I suppose your bloodline isn't as strong as ours. We come from the first ever Witch and Warlock, Olive and Screech. I don't think you and Felix go back much further than Hephzibah's time."

"Thanks." Sasha muttered.

"Only when there's a descendant who is an Elementist do they become the Burner, so although Felix is now the Burner, Bruce wasn't. Hep- I- don't know how they know they are the Burner when the title skips every generations. I was sort of hoping you did."

No response.

Dang it!

"You have an older brother called Felix, obviously," Olivia inputted "Who is now the Burner. Your mother died unexpectedly when you were five in a house fire, which is a bit suspicious considering that-" She looked across the table at Sasha's unbroken scowl. Maybe not best to enquire her about whether she and her brother were accidently responsible for the death of their mother or not. "-The statistics of house fires eight years ago were the source of a major, major scandal about corruption in data collecting!"

Sasha wasn't stupid either. Oh well.

"And you do have at least one memory from when you lived with Felix and your parents." Olivia hinted. "Something to do with a Monster Birthday Party."

Sasha froze. "How- how do you-?"

"Ethan." Olivia replied quickly. "He told me about the reaction you had when the two of you were watching the screens at the House of Technology of Ash, Eve, Bethany, Jack, Tabitha, Karl, Max, Iona, Juan, David, Sianna and Danny when they were stuck in that six-dimensional video game thing after Felix hacked the software of the TARDIS during the power cut here he engineered during the disco when everyone started shipping Olukia and I got really annoyed."