Chapter 152: Her Identity Revealed
After relentless coaxing from Reya and Jethru, Lara finally agreed to celebrate her birthday, albeit a bit belatedly—just not two days later, but the very next day.
Over the past two years, it had become an unspoken tradition. Whether it was Jethru’s, Reya’s, Sandoz’s, or her own, birthdays were always marked with good food, laughter, and a cake.
It started with Sandoz’s seventh birthday, when Lara introduced the blowing of the candle and the making of a wish tradition.
That day, Lara and Reya spent the entire morning decorating their modest home at the plateau. It wasn’t much, but to the wide-eyed boy, it was a kingdom of color and wonder. That day, she also attempted something new—baking a cake using the most traditional oven.
It had been a frustrating endeavor, the batter too thick at one point and too runny the next, the scent of burnt sugar nearly overpowering her patience. But when she finally placed the small, lopsided confection on the table, the delight in Sandoz’s eyes made every struggle worthwhile.
When she had set a single candle in the center and told the boy to make a wish before blowing it out, Reya had tilted her head in curiosity.
"Miss, when did you learn to bake? And why should there be a cake on birthdays?"
Lara had frozen for a heartbeat. She had regretted introducing cakes then and there, realizing she needed to explain. But she couldn’t take it back, not with Sandoz looking so eager. So, she scrambled for an answer.
"I... read it from a book once."
It wasn’t entirely a lie. Somewhere in the depths of her memory, buried beneath facts and stories from a world that felt lifetimes away, she recalled the origins of birthday cakes.
The ancient Greeks adopted from the Egyptians the tradition of celebrating birthdays with cakes, offering moon-shaped cakes to Artemis, the goddess of the moon. These cakes were often decorated with candles, representing the moon’s shine. The Greeks believed that the smoke from the candles would carry their wishes and prayers to the gods.