Brynn Natalie Harper has spent much too long at the whim of others’ wishes. She grew up on a polygamist compound and was used to doing as she was told, being silent and a homemaker for a future husband. She’d been in a large family (small, for compound standards) of four mothers. It was rumored that her father had witch blood dating back on his grandmother’s side, but it was blasphemous to even talk about. Still, Brynn’s curiosity got the better of her for much of her childhood, and she’d ask her obliging mother to tell her magical stories, most myth, some legend. She’s always had her own head atop her shoulders, and refused to take Micah Wright’s name when she became his third wife in 1980. It was shortly after this budding act of defiance that she started questioning her empathic abilities, starkly aware that she felt things stronger than other people and was inhibited by such overwhelming emotions, sometimes even feeling lightheaded. Suspecting she herself was an untrained witch, she did research and eventually left her entire family and everything she knew to travel west and start a life of her own away from the toxic patriarchy she was brought up in. She had always been a black sheep, so she could finally own her title and disappear from the family for good. It was rare for people to leave the compound, so she was shunned and barred from ever returning to Pinesdale.
In 1990, Brynn stumbled upon Lethe. She was drawn to the energies of everyone inside the town, like a beacon calling to her. She introduced herself to the council as a witch, but upon inspection learned she was something much more exotic and beautiful. A fae. She was immortal and more than simply empathic, but could transfer energy to or from others, human or not. After giving birth to a son, she realized she’d stopped aging too; the benefits in Lethe were aplenty. She studied under the councilperson and was a very diligent student, curiosity getting the better of her like a child on a Christmas morning that lasted for years. She worked at the animal shelter for a time, helping one Shiloh Seddik heal the most wounded animals as a form of practice. However, because of the overwhelming feelings she started out with in Lethe, she got a job at the mortuary and has since worked her way up to being in charge of the only funeral home in town alongside Gabriel Maddox. She is the face of the business, and he handles the corpses.
When the work is steady, that is never a good sign. With not many deaths in Lethe, the death of Patrick Antrim shakes everyone in town, including Brynn. The immaculate police chief’s death is just a reminder, like the Riverborn, that Lethe isn’t as safe as it is supposed to be, as it once was. What she once would’ve considered a paradise is turning out to be a nightmare, but Brynn is nothing if not loyal to the place that turned her life around. She’s made a home in this nook of a town and will not be scared off by waterlogged amnesiacs nor Friedman’s selfish murder of Antrim.
