Year of the Boar, Tenth Month, Day 25.

I have not had time to order my thoughts; I reread what I had written yesterday and I know that I have omitted detail and not made much sense even to myself but I have been too busy to sit and take the time to compose anything sensible although I feel it is important to note something down so that I at least have some sort of record of events.
I do not know what to make of things; I am not often lost for words but I just do not know what Rani is about. Perhaps Yuika's paranoia is rubbing off on me; perhaps yesterday's talk of intelligence has made me read too much into the situation but I am really starting to question the reason for this "diplomatic tour". When I believed Rani to be a young woman, becoming used to the demands of her royal birthright, I thought little of it but now that I have met her and discoverd that she is in fact, an extremely astute woman of middle years, I have to wonder why she has waited until now... I have scoured the library for more information to see if I could find any evidence that this is the way of the Sixth, or perhaps that things have changed and that this is the way they wish to do things now... but I found absolutely nothing. Most frustrating is the fact that I cannot ask Rani herself without giving her reason to look at me more closely than she already appears to have done... and I can hardly ask Yuika who would have no idea even were she speaking to me; which she is not..
To add to my concern about our visiting princess (and I must add that I have even paused to wonder if she is who she says she is - it is hardly as if we keep portraits of foreign dignitaries in our libraries), Yuika created havoc yesterday. Why she could not just present herself in the Hall and offer Rani some tea which would be the polite thing to do regardless of who the visitor was, I cannot imagine. Instead, she chose to throw a tantrum the likes of which I had yet to see. Her screams could be heard through the entire House and I was glad that I had chosen to wear make up when I went to meet with Rani for breakfast because my cheeks must have been purple with the shame I felt.
To her credit, Rani simply continued with her breakfast murmuring quietly that she would visit Yuika once she had had a chance to enjoy the gardens.
I will continue this later ... I actually feel the need to lie down and calm myself for a while...

Year of the Boar. Tenth Month, Day 24.

To say that Rani is not at all what I expected would somewhat of an understatement. I had expected... well, I suppose... hoped for... would be a better way to phrase it... someone tall, slender, elegant, exotic... glamorous with an air of mystery about her... I had imagined someone poised and possessed of exquiste manners, a person who wore shimmering fabrics which floated around her as if they were spun from gossamer and whose tales of far off lands would entertain us until long after the moon had risen...
I had been extremely restless all morning and by the time the sentries announced the delegation's arrival, I was almost beside myself with the excitement of it all and I hid to watch Rani alight her palanquin so that when she appeared in the Hall, I would not embarrass myself by gaping because I would already have seen her. When a stout woman twice my age wrapped up in furs stepped out of the palanquin, fussing about the midday meal, I thought she must be Rani's maid rather than the princess herself. Thankfully, the truth became apparent before I humiliated myself and so when she was presented in the Hall, I managed a degree of poise which would not have been possible had I waited until then to see her for the first time...
Yuika refused to present herself in the Hall having decided that Rani did not actually exist and that the delegation was all some sort of plot... Something in me changed as I stood there listening to her nonsense and I believe that I have finally decided that I simply no longer care. I do care that Rani does not go about the Kingdom spreading gossip though so I greeted her myself.
While I did not openly say that I was Yuika, I did not suggest that I was anyone else, either so I was staggered when, in the middle of a second cup of tea, she used my name. Staggered does not actually come close to describing my reaction; I do not know how I mananged not to spit the mouthful of tea I had taken all over both of us. Rani seemed to find my efforts incredibly amusing and smirking slightly, she asked me if I had really thought her people would not have done their research...
An interesting point... one that leads me to believe that I am not the only one about Dying Crane with a network of spies and now I shall have to be incredibly careful that they are not discovered, if they have not been already... I shall probably have to find out who does not belong here too, if only to ensure that no information regarding my whereabouts has left the House in the direction of Pale Twilight...
I was somewhat disarmed by Rani's matter-of-fact manner and although I remained guarded, we had a reasonably frank conversation.
I was able to discover that her people have been feeding her a great deal of accurate information about Yuika's indisposition which means that her spies are clearly close... Dying Crane is not her only source of intelligence, either; Rani also knows about Kaede's situation and gave me news that I had not heard which is that Shigeru's marriage has officially been dissolved and that he has agreed to pay his former wife a considerable annuity. An extremely interesting piece of news; I would dearly love to know how she persuaded him to do that since she is a wealthy woman in her own right... her hold over him must be something that he really does not want the rest of the Kingdom to know... which of course, means that I must find out what it is..!
I sense that Rani knows a great deal that she has not let on and that concerns me somewhat because I do not like the idea that she has information she could hold over me one little bit... I will have to bide my time, I suppose and see how this particular land lies. In the meantime, Rani has insisted that she see Yuika tomorrow and says that she will attend Yuika in her chamber if she has to. This has the potential to be a complete disaster; I must find Atsuko and Ryouko and have them drag Yuika to the Hall if necessary...