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“…And the cake I baked for your tenth birthday. That hideous lump the good people of the Mean covered up with beautiful candles…”
“Who knew making a cake could be so difficult?” the Crystal Exarch muttered to himself. He had tried to follow the recipe to the best of his ability, but all he ended up with was a friable cake. He couldn’t even put icing on top without it falling apart. How could I possibly give this to Lyna for her nameday? This is impossible; she deserves better. Maybe I could try again? After all, her special day wasn’t until tomorrow. There was still time to make a cake.
He gathered the ingredients again. The recipe was decades old, from before the Flood, so he had to substitute some of them. He had a feeling that was the problem, but he couldn’t just make the old ingredients appear. Muttering to himself, he said, “One more time, surely.”
That “one” time turned into several more tries, each as disastrous as the last. The eggs didn’t mix properly in one, causing it to be a cake with cooked eggs inside. Disgusting. Another attempt was burnt so badly that he couldn’t salvage it. Also terrible. His fifth try still tasted far too eggy and he didn’t understand why when he was following the recipe.
Gods, I wish my mother were here. It had been years, of course, even before he went to sleep, but he remembered that his mother helped cook for the tribe and could bake as well. Surely she would know what I’m doing wrong. The Exarch rubbed his face, getting flour on his forehead in the process. It was late and he was alone in the kitchen.
Thoughts of his mother made him stop and consider what he was doing. He’d never baked a cake before, not for himself or for any of Lyna’s previous namedays. But this year, she had asked for a cake. “Please, Grandfather?” she begged. “I want a cake. Just this once?”
Well, how could he deny that? To make sure it was fresh, he waited until the morning before, thinking that following a recipe wasn’t that hard if he were careful. It turned out that finding the ingredients took him several hours, as he was forced to substitute some and it took a while to understand which ones those were. Actually mixing the ingredients went all right—he wasn’t completely helpless in a kitchen, he knew how to make lemonade after all! He could measure properly!—but it was baking that became the difficult part.
“I’m definitely doing something wrong.” He picked up his poor attempts and put them in the area meant for feeding livestock or for compost. I’m going to have to make up for wasting supplies, he thought sadly. I can’t do too many more attempts if it’s going to be a wasteful heap. The Crystarium didn’t go without, but trade was dangerous with sin eaters plaguing their borders. They had to be careful with their foodstuff, particularly after relations with Eulmore became strained when Lord Vauthry came to power.
Mother would tell me to get help. Even though he had wanted to do this alone, for Lyna’s sake, he realized now that he couldn’t. The Exarch checked the time and saw that the earliest culinarians should be coming in to work, so he could hopefully ask someone in the Mean to help him. Feeling hopeful, he cleaned up and went to the Crystalline Mean.
To his relief, Katliss was awake. “Good morning, my lord!” she greeted him, cheerfully but sleepily. “What brings you to the Mean so early?”
“Lyna’s nameday is today,” he said, unable to hide the desperation in his voice. “I’ve tried baking her a cake and all of my attempts have come out wrong.” He showed her the recipe he’d been using, with the substitutions he’d used. “Please help me, Katliss. We’re supposed to celebrate at noon and there isn’t much time left until then.”
She whistled. “I can see how, my lord. Let me give you my recipe instead. This was a good try, but I think you were doomed from the start.”
He let out a tired sigh. “I was afraid of that. Thank you, Katliss.”
“Of course!” A few minutes later she was handing him her own recipe. “Here you are, sir. Try not to burn down the kitchen.”
As bad as Krile, honestly! I’m not THAT hopeless! Still, he chuckled and waved so he could go back.
Unfortunately, the new recipe proved to be equally as difficult, at least as far as his presentation. He only had time to try it twice before being forced to accept the result: a hideous lump of a cake. The cake tasted good, as he had flattened the bottom layer and tasted the scraps, but it looked awful. Lyna will think I hate her, he thought sadly with a wince, but brought it back up to the Mean to see if maybe Katliss could save it.
When she saw it, he could tell she had to school that calm expression onto her face. “Exarch, sir? May I make a suggestion?”
“Go ahead, Katliss.”
“Please don’t make any further cakes. At least not without supervision, and especially not for a nameday.”
The Crystal Exarch hung his head, embarrassed, and nodded. “I can do that. But can you save my last attempt?”
“I think I can salvage this.” Katliss smiled and called over one of the others, and between the workers at the Mean, Lyna’s tenth nameday cake was saved.
She clapped in delight upon seeing her cake, even though it was clearly not as pretty as it could have been, and blew out the candles.