By no real effort and by mere turns of fate the Bernstein family had been an undisputed matriarchy for many generations, a long line of nymph women going through life without men at their sides for all kinds of reasons: commitment issues and lack of responsibility, unfortunate early deaths, or strong-willed women that didn’t wish to have a good for nothing as a husband. Nora never got to meet her grandfather, who was a fellow that wasn’t worth knowing if her grandmother’s words were to be taken at face value. Oma Johanna said she’d been a foolish girl when she married the man, regretting everything about her marriage except the daughter Gerhard gave her. When little Nora asked why her Opa wasn’t around, Oma Johanna was blunt and simply said that when they moved to America he ran off with a local woman he’d taken as his lover. She didn’t weep a single tear for him then and didn’t weep when recounting that event, if anything she always made a point of expressing how content she’d been to be rid of the man. Nora’s own mother, Astrid, didn’t follow her mother’s footsteps in any way. She didn’t even get married but after a fling with a friend of hers in the midst of the of the colorful psychedelia of the late 60’s she also ended up being a mother raising a little girl without a man by her side. Nora never knew much about her father when she was little but unlike Oma Johanna, who would go on to curse her husband’s name until her dying day, when Nora asked about her father, her mom always said he was a good man. Circumstances just weren’t right, she’d say.
Living in a quaint, little coastal town was a perfect way to live for Astrid and Oma Johanna, especially in twilight of her grandma’s life, both of them water nymphs who thrived with the closeness of the ocean. However, much to Oma Johanna’s dismay, Nora took after her accursed grandfather and found her natural affinity in fire. In a way, that affinity was a metaphor for the girl Nora grew up to be. She became a force to be reckoned but not in the imposing, chaotic way of wildfire. She was an unerring, determined flame ruthlessly burning over a line of gunpowder, following a direction of her own making. For better or worse, a petite girl like her was seen as unassuming, unimportant even, and Nora discovered there were few things that brought more joy than proving others wrong as she ended on top. After setting her mind on leaving her hometown she went on to study and began to make a life for herself. There was an odd sense of pride in her crappy apartment and working two jobs to finance her studies only because it was something she was accomplishing on her own, all through pure determination and hard work. It wasn’t glamorous but Nora thrived. Time passed and she stayed on good terms with her mom in spite of the distance, in spite of Astrid finding happiness in getting married to an air nymph and having another baby girl. At least history would remember one Bernstein woman had a fairly stable, peaceful marriage at last. Nora’s path was directed towards Lethe after entering a phase in which she wasn’t quite sure where she fit anymore, not in the city and surely not back with her mom and her new family. For once in her life Nora began to doubt what she wanted for herself and it terrified her. Staying in a little town to clear her mind and find her balance -her drive- again, seemed as good a plan as any. Besides, her father lived in Lethe, according to her mom.
As one of the newest residents in Lethe, Nora is only beginning to learn about the inner conflict -or rather, varying opinions and large scale skepticism- there seems to be in regards to those they call “Riverborn”. The nymph, however, has yet to make her own judgments about the situation.
