The Dominant Species

One day, I went to my mother and told her that I had another meeting with Caleb and his sister and best friend.

“I learned something important,” I announced. “What?”

“Humans have magic.”

Mom looked surprised.

“All of them?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“How different is it from ours?”

“What makes you think it’s different?”

“Because they are a different species.”

“Well, they have to say words in order to cast a spell.”

“That makes it harder,” Mom said, sympathetically.

“Yes, but they can ask for more accurate things. Our magic is more general.” “Well, that’s to be expected.”

“What do you mean?”

“Everyone has an advantage and a disadvantage.”

“I always knew that despite our successes we weren’t perfect,” I said.

“See? Humility is important in a queen.”

I felt good.

I remembered how Mom gave me my first magic lesson. She taught me about the theory and how to cast spells. My parents could have easily gotten someone else to teach me, and most parents do, but Mom wanted to be involved in that part of my life too. She wanted the responsibility and I think she wanted to bond with me too.

After Mom had recovered from her illness I heard her tell Dad that she was terrified that that experience could have harmed her relationship with me. Dad had kissed her and assured her it didn’t and that she still had time to fix anything that could have been damaged.

I felt like we wouldn’t have been as close if Mom hadn’t taught me magic herself. Dad was involved too, but it was mostly Mom. These days, I practiced with my best friend and the merman I loved, but it was my parents who had trained me and taught me and helped me be as good as I was. Mom was patient. She gave me advice whenever I made mistakes. And she praised me whenever I did something right.

I remembered Mom saying that her belief in me wasn’t blind faith. Mom and Dad had seen my skills. Even if, for some reason I couldn’t see them myself, Mom and Dad’s opinion was based on facts. I decided to trust them and myself. When I was a child my parents were always thrilled whenever I did something right. Mom later told me that children needed all that encouragement, but they had not been faking their happiness.