Year of the Boar, Twelfth Month, Day 17.

 I decided that I could not bear to be cooped up in Haru's room for another stick and despite my intention to remain out of sight, I took a turn around the castle earlier. It has been a long time since I was at Silent Thunder and I had forgotten how refined Kaede's taste is. No matter where one is, there is a sense of careful curation to the height of elegance; she favours simplicity over the current tastes for clutter and fuss, embracing the ancient aesthetics of brushed gold and cream against darkened wood over more modern trends for vibrant splashes of colour with bold patterns anywhere one can put them. 

Every room has an exquisite floral arrangement, also in the styles of our ancestors. I noted a particular arrangement in the Banquet Hall which actually took my breath away momentarily; in a shallow, round bowl sat a stem of the thinnest bamboo I believe I have ever seen, and entwined around it, three pristine, cream orchids. There was nothing remarkable about three orchids, or indeed a stem of bamboo and it is not as if I have never seen a floral arrangement before but... it seemed to me at that moment to represent some sort of ... perfection... it commanded my attention, almost demanding that I worship it. I am not usually given to florid, lengthy descriptions, preferring to note the facts, but that arrangement was somehow worthy of better than a what amounts to a footnote... 

Despite Kaede's love of simplicity, I was surprised to see that the women of Silent Thunder have yet to eschew the fashion for painting one's face white and blackening the teeth. Yuika may have some strange ideas but refusing to plaster grease all over her face daily was not one of them; why anyone continues to do so baffles me but despite my revulsion for the practice, Kaede looks as beautiful as she ever did... I caught sight of her, very briefly, as she went into the Banquet Hall for the midday meal. Clad in House silks of the deepest purple with a sash of muted gold, her hair swept up in an elaborate series of twists held together by pins topped with metal flowers and crystal beads, she looked exquisite; confident and comfortable in her own skin; clearly, Sasanuma is doing her no end of good. She did not, however, look even remotely pregnant... even were she hiding it, by this stage, surely it would be evident. I wonder if my intelligence was wrong... of course it is none of my business but I do want to know!

I returned to Haru's room to find that she had left me some food and after all of those hurried meals on the road, the bowl of the Kingdom's finest rice paired with squid and a casserole of various mushrooms seemed by far the tastiest meal I have ever eaten. She will return again soon, no doubt and then I will ask her to pack me some supplies so that I can leave; I must keep at least one of the promises I have made...