Year of the Boar, Ninth Month, Day 12.

We must leave the Seventh Kingdom and return to Dying Crane as quickly as we can. It is barely past dawn and I sit here writing, dressed already, having struggled to eat the smallest breakfast of wheat cakes and fruit. As it has been since we arrived here, the food was excellent - the wheat cakes were cooked wonderfully and the fruit was at the perfect point of ripeness but I could not swallow it. I feel terribly sick and although I am afraid to go back to Dying Crane, I know that I must. I cannot remain here.
Nanami and Atsuko have been organising my things. Neither of them were very happy when I woke them before dawn and announced that I wanted to leave but they have really had very little to do between them since we arrived here so it will do them no harm to earn their keep for a while.
I woke from a terrible dream; Shigeru was in my bed, his weight pressing me face down into my pillows. In the dream, I did not realise it was he until he had finished taking his pleasure and he whispered that Dying Crane's tribute had been paid and that order had been restored. It was fragmented; not linear and even before Shigeru had finished speaking, I found myself in the middle of a battlefield dressed in full armour, atop a stallion as black as the dead of night. I knew it to be my father's horse but I did not know why my father had chose another horse instead of Gen.
I charged, following my father into the fray, weilding a sword I could barely lift and as I drew closer to the battle, the sword sank lower and lower into the grass, trailing behind me as I rode until only the hilt was not buried in the earth and suddenly, I was alone.
I stood in another field but there was no ground. There was nothing at all other than an eerie silence and ash which blew around me, swirling as if it were carried on a great wind but I heard nothing and I felt... nothing. My hair was loose and wild as if it had not been brushed for days and I was barefoot. I began walking - in the dream I was walking purposefully, but awake, I cannot say where I was or where it was I thought I was going.
I could not have walked more than ten paces before I found myself dressed in full Court attire, kneeling at a table in a Banquet Hall. I knew myself to be at Dying Crane but I must have conjured up the Hall from a novel because it bore no resemblance to any Banquet Hall in the Ninth Kingdom, The room was made of bricks rather than our traditional wood and there were pictures on the walls but they were made using brushes; not like the woodblock prints with which I adorn my walls. There were no fabric hangings, no floral arrangements and no musicians in the room.
None of the other guests had faces and in the dream, I tried desperately to talk to the two who shared my table but they were not capable of a response. I turned my attention to the food but it turned to overcooked seaweed between my chopsticks and I could not get it into my mouth.
The seaweed dissolved and the figure next to me turned to me and opened a mouth that had not been there a moment before. I strained to hear what it was saying but rather than words, it spewed blood which covered everything. It did not cease and the Hall began to fill and I remained, kneeling passively at the table as if it were perfectly normal to drown in blood; waiting for it to consume me.
And so, I must return to my House and I must go now. Of course I cannot simply leave; there are bills to be paid, supplies must be replenished and we must acquire more horses. I have left it to Nanami to decide the route we take - she seems to be very good at that sort of thing. I want to get to Dying Crane as quickly as possible but I know that there is little point in taking the fastest route if it means we lose our lives in the mountains. I must also consider that riding the horses has made me ill. Nanami hates them and has refused point blank to ride at all. She insists that she will walk behind us. I have told her that she is being completely ridiculous; speed is of the utmost importance but I cannot simply ride off by myself and I cannot meander home and leave Nanami to trail behind us and I cannot leave her here alone.
Whatever else passes between us, I will ensure that Nanami returns safely to her grandmother. That is my duty and if I do not manage to fulfill another duty until the end of my days, I shall fulfill this one.
I can do nothing for the time being but wait. Once the supplies are bought and loaded and our route has been decided, perhaps I will be able to persuade Nanami to ride. Perhaps Atsuko can find some sort of herb which will render Nanami insensible so I can put her on the back of a horse regardless...
There is no point in dwelling on that just yet - I shall go and find out how Atsuko is faring with the preparations for now...