Before Violet

A True Story

Leon unpacked his simple supplies of a ball of twine and a strange head lamp with a cord running away from it to a sizable pack he clipped onto his belt.
He tested it by clicking it on and off. Not much could be made of it outside in the early afternoon daylight, but the illumination of the cave's dark anterior told of the strength of a little light in complete darkness.
Leon looked at me and smiled a bit sadly. "I shouldn't have gone on like that about your grandmother. Much of that I have never even spoken aloud, and now that it has, I can hear how insane I must sound. Please forgive me, Hya. To ask anyone, I am a trusted gentleman."
Isn't that exactly what a mad person would say just before entering a dark cave?? My mind screamed.
I swallowed hard. "If it is all the same to you, Leon. I'd be much more comfortable staying here at the entrance. I'll see to the security of your twine trail."
Leon nodded solemnly, and said, "That is fair enough."
He tied the end of the twine around the nearest tree.
"How far into the cave should you have to go?" I asked.
"For the manuscripts? Not too far, I'd suspect. Fifty yards or so."
"That shouldn't be too difficult, surely."
"No, it shouldn't. . .but, the manuscripts and that celestial document is not all that is in there."
"Oh? Is there treasure, too?" I asked hopefully with a laugh.
"To me, yes." Leon answered very seriously.
My laughter died in light of his tone.
"What is it, then, Leon?"
"Perhaps it is a good thing I was honest with you, Hya. This way I need not explain the importance of this expedition. I believe I might be finding here the documents about your grandmother's parentage. The life she had before your great uncle Dietfried brought her to your grandfather as a child."
I felt my mouth drop open. My eyes might have been bulging, they felt so very wide. So much in only a handful of words. How I wanted to scream at him to not say another word I was not braced to hear. In response, my hands involuntarily flew to my ears to cover them.
"Oh. . . you did not even know that much, did you?" Leon asked with honest pity. "I'm sorry, Hya, yet again." He turned to enter the mouth of the cave when my hand shot out and took hold of his arm.
My mind raced back and forth between leaving the past alone and wanting to know it all, even if it were from a stranger. At least he would not see any reason to omit anything to save my feelings. 
           More over, what if he ventured inside the cave and for whatever reason did not return? Weren't there sometimes poisonous gases in the depths of such places?? Certainly unseen shafts that could have you fall for miles. . .
         "Wait! Before you go in. . .before something could happen between now and getting back to Ecarte, please, tell me all that you know. All these bits will render me insane if you're unable to tell me what my own family will not."
           Leon looked down at where I gripped his shirt sleeve then at me. "Are you for certain? I could be breaking Violet's trust. Losing her trust and friendship would be the end of me, you know."
            I loosened my grip.  "She never spoke of her days before she worked for Mr. Hodgins as a Doll.  Her arms were lost during the war. Must have been extremely traumatic. It separated her from my grandfather, and surely that was devastating.  She never spoke of these things, but I had never asked. . ."
            His intense blue eyes bore holes into me. "I am going to ask you once more. Are you for certain you want to know?"
           Was I for certain, honestly???
            "Because, Hya, once you know, you will forever not know. Understand?"
           I blinked, then nodded slowly.
          "And you must take it as the truth. I would not intentionally lie to you, and my research of all things is above reproach."
            I nodded again, with more confidence now. I ought to know. I should be the one to carry on the truth when those who lived it are gone and my children and grandchildren have questions. "I am ready, Leon."
            He then told me everything.
They did not meet as I had always imagined. In my head, I had made it cannon law that Gilbert was a dashing military major, tall, sheepishly handsome, full of honor and Violet, a young orphan girl who had fallen desperately in love with him as his troops marched through her area in Leiden. My truth was now false.
Grandmother Violet was taken from a war zone as a lone child of approximately 8 years of age. She could not speak, nor read. She could, however, kill by whatever means possible, and she could do so by command alone.
Navy Captain Dietfried Baugainvillea, her captor, presented Violet to his younger brother, my grandfather Gilbert, after making arrangements with the high officers in the Leidenshaftlich army. Although only a child, her battle skills were phenomenal and she was to be used as a weapon of war, no more, no less. And just like a weapon, she was to be discarded whenever grandfather had no use for her any longer out on the battlefield.

Violet fought by Gilbert's side for four years.  She proved to be the army's best kept secret.  Entire cities were taken through Violet's prowess as a warrior.  Along the way Gilbert gave her the name of Violet, taught her his language, and how to read and write.  To him she was an extraordinary girl who was to have the rights of everyone else. 
               "Her arms. ." I managed to say, after a long while, "She did not lose them as a civilian."
              Leon shook his head, and told me of the last decisive battle in the city of Intense.  Violet had been found unconscious in the ruin of a cathedral.  My grandfather was supposedly dead nearby, beneath the rubble of a collapsed wall. Only his identification tags were found.  He was not.
            Much of the rest, I did actually know about my grandmother. I knew she was given a job at a newly operational postal company owned by Aunt Nora's father, Claudia Hodgins after the war.  She became an Auto Memory Doll, who traveled about and wrote letters for those who requested it.  
            What I did not know was that Claudia Hodgins, a former Lt. Colonel, had made a promise to look after Violet  if something  happened to Gilbert. Well, it did and it was Mr. Hodgins' responsibility to find her a home and a means to make a living.  Through lots of trials and hard work, she became the famously known Violet Evergarden. 
            This was around the time she met and worked with Leon Stephanotis at the Justitia observatory in Astrea.  From the very first day Violet came home with Claudia Hodgins, she was under the impression that Gilbert was alive and healing from his injuries.  No one else, even his family, believed him to be alive, although his body was never recovered from the cathedral.
He was alive and had put himself in exile , without a word from him to anyone. 
Violet lived four years working as Auto Memory Doll and always in search for Gilbert, only to have found him by chance through a letter he had ghost written for a child on Ecarte. His handwriting was distinct enough for Claudia Hodgins to find him out.
           "So he did run away, hoping he'd forget about her and vise versa." I said dismally.
"Under the circumstances, it might have been what anyone would do."
"Yes. . .but it still sounds so heartless and cruel, which is something Grandfather Gilbert would have never been with my grandmother."
Leon had to agree. "When I finally met your grandfather and saw how very much they care for each other, my long held perception could do nothing but change."
"So, how did it make you feel?"
Leon considered this a moment. "A whole spectrum of emotions. I was charmed, yet aggravated, although I knew feeling that way was rather ridiculous. But it was good to see them in their happiness together. Violet deserved it."
"She did, yes."
"So, how do you feel, now that you know."
"Like my grandmother is a stranger to me now. Yet, with such a childhood, it explains so much about her mannerisms, how in speaking she uses only as many words as are necessary. How extremely organized she keeps her office and accounts."
"Like a machine. . ." said Leon, "Like her mechanical arms. . ." He turned his face to the sky. "The day is getting away from us, Hya.  I had better get going."
            Leon stood from where he had sat telling me the unknown history of my grandparents. I stood also. "I want to go inside."
            Leon looked at me in astonishment. "Are you sure?"
            "Yes."
              Leon picked up the ball of twine and put it in my hands. "Then you can handle this, then."