“Hey, Dad. Mom. I’m seventeen. I know I might look like a child to you, but I’m an adult, and I want to choose my own path. No, I will choose my own path.” And I would be my own protector. The thought burned in my heart, good and true. “Mom, Dad…now you’ve got to choose: your faith, or your daughter?”
Ugh, no, what had I done? That was too far for sure! I mean, their faith was obviously more important to the both of them, right? They’d just ignore me now. Ignore me again… I…I could feel my breathing getting ragged.
“Elgis, don’t you think that’s enough?” said Mom, breaking a silence that seemed to last an eternity. She had a warm, gentle smile on her face, a face that hadn’t changed a bit since my childhood.
“Yeah, you’re right.” Then…Dad smiled warmly too?
“Eh? Um. What’s going on?” What did those smiles mean?
“If we appeal to the village chief directly about restoring your ‘Wind God’ ability, we’ll most likely be chased out of the village. We just put on a little show to know for sure…to see if this was really what you wanted.”
“Mmhm. And I feel you’re so serious that it’s almost painful. You’ve really grown up.”
The two of them looked at me so tenderly now. The mood in the air had completely transformed from a few moments ago. I couldn’t grasp what was happening.
I just stared at them in bewilderment. “Huh? But your faith? Your faith has to be…more important to the two of you than…than me, right?”
“More important than our daughter? No, Lia. Never.”
What was happening right now? My mind raced like crazy inside my head. I was more important to them than their faith? Me? But that…but…
“We were wrong,” said mom. “We thought we had to protect you, Lia, at all costs, no matter the sacrifice. But before we even realized it, you started making your own way. You’ve grown up, Lia.”
“Your mother and I support your choice, Lia. We’ll go with you to talk to the village chief.”
“It looks like it’s time for us to let our daughter go.”
Mom and Dad came in and hugged me tight.
“Elgis and I will always be with you,” said Mom. “I love you.”
“I love you too, Lia. You’re more than important to us than anything. Our pride and joy.”
“D-Dad… M-Mom…”
My parents’ words flowed gently into my heart as they hugged me. Some knot of darkness inside me melted away in their warmth and their words. Then, after maybe ten seconds, twenty seconds, maybe more—after hugging me for a long time, at any rate—the two of them stood back up.
“Lia. We’re sorry. We were truly horrible to you.”
“Yes, we…we’re failures as parents. An apology won’t make up for what happened, but we are truly very sorry.”
And Dad and Mom, they…bowed to me. Deeply. It was the first time they’d ever bowed to me like this, and I was shocked. Suddenly the two of them looked so small. Somehow, I understood that—and I don’t mean this in a bad way—that the two of them weren’t gods or anything. They were just ordinary elves. Just other people, like me.
At the same time, I was surprised, because…I could see into their minds now. I paid no attention to the dryness of my mouth. I swallowed some spit, felt my throat moving up and down. Now I could know what they thought of me. What they really thought of me. In order to take a step forward, with my own will…I’d use my ability.
And.
“What’s wrong?!”
“Lia! Are you okay?!”
My eyes got hot. I couldn’t help but look straight up. Their hearts, they brimmed with repentance and a love that surpassed even that. My dad and mom had loved me. Loved me then, and loved me now. It wasn’t disgust clouding their hearts, it wasn’t anger…it was the overwhelming tides of guilt for ignoring me.
“Yes…I…” I looked forward, holding back my tears. “I’m okay. I am.”
They’d agreed to let me regain my abilities and to go on traveling. It was so sudden, such a shock, that I might suddenly die. I’d wondered if I wasn’t showing my parents the daughterly respect they deserved, but they were still graciously sending me on my way, even as they were worried about me.
So I smiled at them both. “Dad. Mom. Thank you for giving me life. I-I’m so happy to be your daughter!”
They burst into tears. They stared at me, faces wet, smiles wavering and disheveled from crying, sniffling.
“You, ah, oh, you’ve turned into such a fine young lady before we even realized it!”
Thank you, Dad. I was too embarrassed to actually say it, but when I was a goofy kid, I really did think dumb stuff like “I wanna marry my daddy.”
“She’s our daughter, Elgis… Ah, of course she would be, right?”
Thank you, Mom. I’d never imagined my mom, who was always so tough, thought so much of me that her voice would quiver as she spoke of me. I hoped she’d forgive me for being so rebellious.
And now there was Yuri to think about. To fight together with. To stand beside. When I got my abilities back, I’d help him just as much as he’d helped me until now.
With that in mind, I raced to go tell Yuri that I’d finished my conversation with my parents.
“Oh, Filia, how’d it go?”
“Great! They agreed to go with me!”
“Right on, Filia, you did it!” he shouted happily, as if just hearing it was sunshine for him.
That made me happy, too. Looking at his face, I felt my shoulders getting lighter, my mood brighter. I held up one finger in front of Yuri’s face.
“Yes, well, of course I did it. But there’s just one problem…”
“Problem? What?”
“I’m terribly exhausted after telling my parents my true feelings and having a general personal revelation—all that stuff. So how about, for a nice change of pace, I look at you with my eyes rolled back so you can only see the whites of my eyes?”
At that, Yuri’s cheeks suddenly twitched. Jeez, how rude! Here I was, giving him an exceedingly rare view of the transcendentally beautiful elf Filia with her eyes rolled all the way back, and that was his reaction? I—
All right, I just wanted to see him smile. I wanted Yuri to know some of the happiness I felt when I was together with him.
“Um, Filia? I really wish you’d stop doing that, if you could.”
“On whose authority, Yuri? Eh? Ehh?”
“Didn’t you just ask me if it was okay?”
“Ta-da!” Without answering his question, I widened my rolled-back eyes and leaned in close.
“That’s not a change of pace. That’s terrifying!”
At that moment, I realized two vital things:
First, when I rolled my eyes back like that, I couldn’t actually see Yuri’s face to know if he was smiling. Second, judging from the tone of his voice, Yuri wasn’t happy about it. If anything, he was seriously skeeved out.
Mission…failed…
Oh well. It was already getting late, so it was about time to get to bed. All in one night, I’d grown up a little and learned that everyone’s a critic.