Year of the Boar, Ninth Month, Day 10.

My feet felt somewhat better this morning so I decided that a turn around the small garden here would be more pleasurable than another day sitting inside doing very little. The sun was weak; a pale silvery ball doing its best to break through the vibrant blue of the sky but it felt wonderful to be outside at my leisure rather than because I was on a seemingly unending journey. My contentment was short-lived however, since the ache in the soles of my feet returned rather sooner than I would have liked but it was certainly pleasant to be outside while it lasted.
The raw skin seems to be on the mend and I am hopeful that within the next few days, I will be able to continue on towards Purple Lightning. I have decided that my initial idea to sneak into the House is fraught with difficulty and when I have an agent inside the House, it seems ridiculous not to ask him for help. Once I am closer to the House, I will find a way to send Kouji a note and ask him whether I am likely to be in danger by walking in through the front door. I am sure that he can find a way to get me inside the House in the event that Tsuyoshi and Ichiko are likely to contact mother upon my arrival and if he thinks they will look upon me favourably, I can simply announce myself.

Year of the Boar, Ninth Month, Day 9. Postscript.

Since I put brush to paper this morning, a bird has arrived. Aoki wrote to tell me about Kenta's death. Of course I already knew but Aoki could not possibly have known that when he wrote. He was good enough to let me know that there has been no sign that mother has been searching for me in the north which I was relieved to read; perhaps she thinks I am dead.
Aoki has attended the funeral with Shinshinosuke and Rina and tells me that he has seen Nanami there with Yuika. He has not spoken to her since he has not been able to find a reason to seek her out and is wary of arousing any kind of suspicion. I doubt he would be noticed going to talk to anyone; when I last attended to a funeral, I could not have said what my own maid was doing from stick to stick since I spent most of the time in the courtyard taking part in the various ceremonies one is expected to attend. So long as she was available to bathe me and dress me when I needed her, I was not particularly interested in what she was doing otherwise. The same cannot be said of The Lord and Lady Shimmering Dawn or Yuika, I suppose; it could be that they prefer to know what their staff are doing at all times...
Since Aoki sent the letter, I expect the ceremony has finished but Kaede may well have offered her hospitality and so it is not unlikely that several of the Rulers are still at Silent Thunder. In her position, offering the Rulers of every other House my hospitality would have been the last thing I wanted to do; I would have wanted them to leave as quickly as possible but Kaede is far more concerned with etiquette than I... Aoki writes that father did not attend. Mother was there with Taiji and Aki and she put it about that father was too ill to travel. Is he ill or has he died...? I do not want to believe that mother would be so crass as to hide father's death but it is in her interests to do so. While father is alive, mother is Ruling Lady; once he is dead, she becomes a dowager subject to Taiji's rule... On balance though, if that were her game, she would have to either hide father's death from Taiji and Aki or somehow convince them to go along with her and I cannot see that they would have a reason to do that...

Year of the Boar, Ninth Month, Day 9.

I have not had an opportunity to explore my surroundings properly due to my feet; I spent another stick with them in warm, salted water earlier but they show little improvement. I dare not try to walk other than to hobble to the privy lest the raw skin becomes worse. I am loathe to call for a physician since my coin is dwindling and may not even get me to Purple Lightning if I am not thrifty.  If there is no sign of healing in another day or two, I may have to reconsider; for now, I am resigned to simply wait.
The innkeeper has been kind enough to serve me food in my room. He says it is not something he would normally allow but one look at my feet made him retch and he agreed that I should not walk unless absolutely necessary until they start to look better. The ache in the soles has subsided somewhat but they still feel much better without my weight on them. I know that now my plans have changed, I have no reason to hurry but I cannot rid myself of the feeling that I am wasting time just sitting here..
The weather has remained chilly but not unbearable and the sky is blue and the sun high. There has been no snow or rain for which I am thankful and the inn has a lovely garden which is replete with flowers even this late in the year so at least I have had something to look out on while I sit in my room.
I have spent some time writing to Nanami to apprise her of my situation and let her know my whereabouts but I have no way to send the letter without a bird and I cannot justify the expense of paying someone to take it to Dying Crane when I have no way of knowing when they will return to the House and there is no guarantee that she would receive the letter if someone left it there for her. There is little else to be done until I hear from one of my network so I shall continue to rest and refine my plans.

Year of the Boar, Ninth Month, Day 8.

I have crossed the border. It was much further than it looked and took considerably longer than I imagined it would. My feet are badly blistered and in places they are raw but I could not bear the thought of trying to sleep out in the open for one more night; foolishly, I kept walking until I could walk no more.  I imagined that I would find a wall of some sort at the border and guards in towers intermittently along it but there no such security; merely a wooden post every few leagues with Seventh burnt into it on our side and Ninth on the other. I cannot imagine what Yuika is thinking that she has no protection at all along a border with a foreign land but perhaps she has some arrangement with her neighbours in the Seventh. In any case, I suppose I should be thankful that there was nothing to impede my entry into the Seventh Kingdom.
I expected everything to feel different once I crossed the border; I thought the scenery would somehow change dramatically and that the buildings would have some feature or other that marked them as distinctly Seventh. I thought that I would feel completely free. I feel no different at all and the land here is not significantly different that one would know at first glance that one has crossed into another country.
I have found that many people here speak our tongue and well. Not in the slow, indolent tones of my House, of course but with the spikier accents of the north west. I suspect that as I move further south I will hear the accents change as they do in the Ninth Kingdom. I have had no difficulties communicating and of course, no one is at all bothered about where I am from or what I am doing roaming about the borders on my own so in that sense, I suppose I do feel free. There seem to be some similarities between our languages and if I ever have the time to travel more extensively, I would like to go further west and see if the language of the Seventh changes beyond recognition or if it remains similar.
I was fortunate enough to find an inn fairly quickly once I had crossed the border; if I had not, I am sure I would have ended up at the side of the road on my knees unable to move at all. I have had my feet in a bowl of warm water with some salt for about half a stick and while it was agonising at first, at least now I know that my wounds are clean and I need fear no infection. The throbbing has not ceased, however, and I am unsure how long it will be before I can put enough weight on them to walk but it will do no harm to stay here for a day or two at least.
I have had no word from Nanami or any of my other agents in some time and not knowing what is disquieting. I suppose that if I were in any great danger of being tracked down by mother's soldiers, one of my network would have let me know. I think it likely that Kenta's funeral has diverted everyone's attention in any case so I do not suppose I have much for fear for a short while at least.
While I am resting here, I will take the opportunity to consider my plan for arriving at Purple Lightning. I do not know what arrangements they have at the border and despite father's exhortation to seek answers at Purple Lightning, I am also uncertain of what kind of welcome I will receive there. I must decide whether to arrive as myself or sneak in through the servants' entrance as I did at Dying Crane. I cannot think that there is much to be gained from announcing myself upon my arrival since I have no way to know whether mother has made any arrangements to have me returned to Pale Twilight should I turn up there. As I recall, Tsuyoshi and Ichiko's daughter is a fairly flighty, romantic girl... perhaps if I were to find her and swear her to secrecy, she would hide me until I have found what I need. I could tell her some nonsense about a forbidden love and throw myself on her mercy and beg for her help... yes... that may work. I will give it more thought and refine my plans over the next few days.

Year of the Boar, Ninth Month, Day 6.

I was exhausted last evening and could not even muster the tiniest bit of energy with which to record my thoughts. Since I spent the entire day on foot with little to interrupt my journey but the odd crow swooping into the furrows of a field in the hopes of scavenging some food, there was little to record in any case.
I woke when day broke as the sun burst through the last vestige of night and though my feet still pained me I decided that it would not serve me to remain where I was and so I gathered my belongings and resumed my journey.
I cannot describe the ache in my feet and since I now have sight of the border, I thought it safe enough to sit for a short while and rest. My thoughts are a jumble. It seems so long ago that I left home to come to Yuika's aid and I have not achieved what I intended to. I am tired and I wish I could have rested at the castle a while. Sitting here writing these thoughts with my back against a tree, my choice to pose as a servant rather than donning my Silks and walking into the House of Dying Crane through the front gate seems particularly stupid... but I suppose I made my choice and I must make the best of things. I can only hope that the temperature does not drop much further before I reach Purple Lightning because if I have to spend many more nights in the open, I shall freeze before I arrive. Intellectually, I know that it was the right decision; I should have had to have answered far too many questions had I simply walked in and announced myself but at this moment, I wish I had thought twice.
The closer I move towards the mountains, the colder it seems to become but perhaps it is merely my imagination playing tricks on me. I do not know what the weather is typically like in the Seventh Kingdom but since I shall be travelling just on the other side of the mountains, I suspect it will be just as cold and that thought does not fill me with joy. I wish I had been able to obtain a better map of the Seventh rather than having to make do with the partial one I found at the inn but as it is, I shall have to walk towards the south as closely to the border as I can or risk getting lost in the wilds of the Seventh. It does not seem as though it is too far to the border of Purple Lightning from the border here but I shall not really be able to tell until I am actually on the road again.
I allowed my thoughts to wander earlier and I cannot help but think about The Chief. I have been so single-minded about coming to Dying Crane and then pursuing father's wish that I go to Purple Lightning and I wonder now if I have made a big mistake. The Chief offered me the kind of life I dreamt about while I was shut up within the walls of Pale Twilight and he stirred feelings within me that I could barely have imagined and yet I turned him down and I do not know why. I told myself that it was because I had made a promise that I must keep but to whom did I really make that promise? Yuika had no idea that I was even on my way and even if she had, I owe her no allegiance.  The same questions present themselves again and again and still I have no answers. Since I have no answers, I find myself with no choice but to continue as I had planned and hope for the best.
I will sleep here tonight and be on my way as soon as I wake. Perhaps the gods will smile on me in the morning and send me another kind traveller with a wagon or at the least, a spare horse.