Childhood Terror
Nora knew about her abilities from a young age, but wasn't great about controlling them. Without even really thinking about it she could move objects via telekinesis. When she was happy or having a creative burst little balls of light would pop up around her like fireflies. This didn't start until around the age of ten, and she assumed it happened to all girls her age and didn't think to speak with her parents about it. Her adoptive parents were terrified the first time they walked into their daughters room to find dancing balls of light in the air, a teacup stirring itself, and a book floating beside her head as she took notes. At her mother's scream the lights extinguished, the teacup lay still, and the book toppled to the floor. She rushed to her mother to see what was wrong, but to her surprise her mother held up her hands in warning. Nora didn't understand, and was hurt to realize that she was the source of the fear in her mother's eyes.
She'd been dropped at the fire station at birth, so her adoptive parents had no option to find the birth parents and inquire, so they sought out resources from all over the world. They searched tirelessly for mentions of magic, but to no avail. They left Nora in the care of the mansion staff as they visited gurus, leaders of many types of faith, psychologists, scientists, or authors, and discretely described their dilemma under the cover of writing a book. People of course had heard fictional tales of witches and magic, but there was no evidence to suggest these abilities existed in the real world. They were even thrown out of some churches!
Nora was a mystery to them and so they hid her from the world, living in fear until the day she turned 18 and they could marry her off. Of course they cared for her, saw to her education, and taught her the ways of the world as they knew it. She was allowed to attend business functions so as not to cripple her social skills, but even then she was heavily guarded as her parents watched for any sign of misbehavior.
Nora frowned as she thought back to her childhood. She was never mistreated by her parents. They loved her in their own way, but she could never cross the distance between them and her abilities to establish true trust. It only took one time. One glance of her true nature and she was no longer a daughter, just a responsibility they couldn't wait to escape from. It was really no wonder they sent her away. Even she couldn't explain what she was. Since the day she'd seen the cold fear in her mother's eyes she hadn't practiced at all, save to figure out how not to do things. She had no idea what she could actually do or what the extent of these abilities would be. They seemed harmless to her, but her mother's look of terror bespoke otherwise.
Shaking her head Nora checked the clock. Midnight already. Her blast from the past had left her silently thinking for hours. Her business plan sat mostly empty, but the sketch of the space she'd be looking for was more than enough to get started. She'd make a stronger start of it tomorrow, no distractions.
Hitting the lights as she went Nora made her way back to the bedroom. She was happy to have a reason to set her alarm for once as she showered and got ready for bed. Inspecting her teeth she put in her retainer and climbed into bed
Later that Night
Nora was in a sea, drowning, unable to breathe. She looked around but all she could see was murky blue water, no light, no sound, just an endless sea of nothingness in every direction. A voice boomed around her, "WE'VE FOUND YOU, LITTLE ONE!" Nora panicked, frantically turning in circles, still seeing nothing, struggling to hold her breath as a small light appeared in the distance. She swam towards it but it seemed to get further and further away as she struggled. As she gave up, stopped moving, and couldn't hold her breath any longer, Nora gave in to the darkness.