Chapter 23: Castella

The castella was black on top and wet in the middle.

It sat on the kitchen counter of 401 on the third of February, in a tin that Ria had greased with far too much butter.

Nanami stood in the doorway in her shop apron, back from the paper shop, and looked at it for some time.

"It's your best yet," she said.

"It is a disaster."

"It's a disaster with candles."

Ria had stuck five thin white candles in the top, crooked, in a row.

She was standing very straight beside it in her cream cardigan, with flour on her cheek and her hands folded in front of her.

"Nanami. I have something to say, and I would like to say it without a clause."

"Go on."

Ria breathed in.

"Today is my birthday. I have not marked one since 1912. I am two hundred and fifteen years old."

She said it clearly, with her chin up.

She did not say the number on the lease.

She did not say any of the other numbers she had worn for two centuries.

"Two hundred and fifteen," Nanami repeated.

"Yes."

"You said two fourteen on the first night."

"It was true until this morning." Ria's mouth wobbled.

"I always said it as a joke, because I was frightened it would sound like what it is. A very old thing that wanted you."

Nanami crossed the kitchen.

She took the flour from Ria's cheek with her thumb.

"It sounds like a woman who's lived through everything and is still brave enough to bake," she said. "Happy birthday, Riyo."

Ria's eyes filled.

"Nobody has said that in a hundred years."

"Then I'll say it every year for the next sixty. And then you can say it for me."

She lit the candles with a kitchen match, and Ria blew them out, and neither of them said what she had wished.

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