Year of the Boar, Thirteenth Month, Day 14.

 Yoshida and his men found the horse this morning. I could not believe it. I felt as if a weight had been lifted, so enormous was the relief. I must admit, I had anticipated Airi's pack being a small bag but it was a sizeable leather trunk which had fallen from the horse's back and had been dragged along in the snow and mud. Yoshida said the weight of it was probably what had prevented the horse from bolting and had it been lighter, we may never have retrieved it. 

The trunk itself is all but ruined. It is battered and somehow it has holes in it. Airi's clothes were soaked and dirty; the maids will have an awful job trying to restore some of the silk, if they are even able to revive it at all. I felt a pang of guilt at hoping they can mend the red gown she wore the day she first made love to me; I would very much like to see her wearing it again. My cheeks feel hot and my heart beats just a little faster at the thought of her in that silk.

Airi burst into tears when she opened the trunk and found that her cosmetics case had split open. Some of her powders were all over her gowns but what made her cry was the sight of her hand mirror which had smashed. There were tiny fragments of glass everywhere and the delicate wooden frame had a huge gash in it. It had been a gift from a good friend, she said. She had had it for many years and was all but inconsolable at the sight of it in ruins. I felt horrible at the sight of her with it in her lap, sobbing over her loss. I wondered if it was more than the mirror she mourned and I pleaded with her not to cry. I told her that I would search the entire Kingdom if I had to but I would find someone who could mend it. I do not know why I said it. No one could put the pieces back together unless they had some sort of magic...