Liliana took a moment to try to imagine herself with that outlook and failed. Utterly. Liliana served Liliana; the chance to be any different had died in a sickroom in the Caligo.

"Fortunately, then, you have me to remember that a little healthy selfishness is important," she said crisply, turning her thoughts away from such things. "Which reminds me..."

She regrettably had to let go of him needing to relocate briefly to fetch her mysterious cargo, placing it carefully down in front of him. "It wouldn't be a proper birthday celebration without a cake," she noted, unlatching the top of the sturdy plastic cake carrier. With that removed, the scent of freshly baked cake was free to find its way to his nostrils.

His favorite cake, of course. The chiffon cake from his childhood, just like the one he and Liliana had made a few months ago, when the island had turned him into a child once more.

A cake that he was certain had been baked less than twenty-four hours ago and yet had somehow still found its way here.