Year of the Boar, Fourteenth Month, Day 4.

Kaede asked for my help with writing some invitations to the Solstice celebrations. Apparently, it is traditional for the Ruler to invite representatives from the Lands to the celebrations. Every year, people who have contributed notably to the Lands are brought to the celebrations as a thank you for their hard work and Kaede writes those invitations personally. I do not believe that she needed my help at all; rather it was an excuse for a conversation. We talked of nothing particularly consequential but Kaede took pains to enquire after my health and to ask whether the morning training was very sensible of me. She had not realised how strenuous it would be when she convinced Sasanuma to agree to it, she said.

I have no intention of letting Kaede know how exhausted I am so I told her that it was actually doing me good. I mentioned that I felt I had been getting soft from so much lying around and that regaining my physical fitness was important to me. She raised an eyebrow but appeared to accept what I said before confessing that she was not enjoying the sessions at all. That, was my cue and I was not about to miss my opportunity to ask her why she had chosen to join me. Her answer was not all that revealing; she merely said that she thinks women should be capable of defending themselves. She is not wrong about that but it did not ring true and when I challenged her on it, pointing out that she is perfectly capable with a bow, she was vague in her response. 

I decided to leave the subject alone. I know when I am pushing my luck. We finished the invitations quite quickly and then went on to decorate some of the sky lanterns everyone will release. Each one has a word for something one might wish for on it... joy... good fortune... love... friendship... children... peace... that sort of thing. Kaede likes to do the ones for her closest family and friends personally. Mine looked dreadful and after I had done two, Kaede suggested I just keep her company while she finished them. I did not protest. Nor did I point out that although her hand is more than competent, compared to Yuika's lyrical, flowing hand, Kaede's writing looks like a spider did it...