Inside the safe there seemed to be a second library, built up of loose papers and files, all stacked together haphazardly. Violet felt her heart swell; there was so much information in there, at least some of it had to contain the answers she was looking for. Mrs. Quagmire reached in deliberately, riffling through the papers to find the ones she wanted. She straightened them against her knee, placing them down in her lap before giving Violet a meaningful look.
"There is a lot that you don't know. For now, we'll just give you the minimum amount of information you need, with the promise of more later." Violet nodded, feeling slightly panicked that there might not be a later, but did her best to swallow her fears down.
"The first thing you need to know is that your suspicions are grounded." Mr. Quagmire spoke up, keeping an even tone. "Your parents' death was not an accident." She leaned back in her seat, trying to pace her breathing. She nodded softly for him to continue. "They worked with us as part of a group dedicated to acts of nobility and the prevention of wickedness. The organization has been around for a long time now, and still operates, albeit underground."
"And they died for that? How could someone oppose that?"
He hesitated, picking his words.
"Years back - before you were even born - there was a schism within the organization, splitting the members according to their ideas of what was the greater good. Some of us fought for the spread of knowledge and nobility, while others turned towards… less altruistic ideals."
"You keep using the word 'noble,' what do you mean by that?"
The couple looked at one another, confused.
"I would have thought someone of your intelligence would know the word 'noble'-"
"No, I know what it means in definition, I mean, what was the specific nobility you were fighting for? What was worth my parents' lives and the destruction of my family?"
Mrs. Quagmire spoke up this time, keeping her voice soft.
"There is an innate morality all of us are born with. It leads us to seek answers and betterment throughout our lives, driving us to help those who need helping and putting out the fires we can. We keep an eye on the general events of the world, put out feelers all over to globe to perpetuate good in whatever way we can. However," she sighed, pulling the air back in through her teeth, "as my husband has already mentioned, peoples' definitions of 'good' can vary. For some former volunteers, they turned to wealth and power as a source of good."
"But, as a secret society interfering in general affairs, aren't you also reliant on a certain sort of power?"
Mrs. Quagmire smiled, turning to her husband.
"I told you there was a great deal of Bertrand in her."
Mr. Quagmire placed his hands together, concentrating.
"Power is not in and of itself a bad thing, Violet. What matters is what you do with it. If you use your power for a greater good, for the actual greater good, then there is a innate quality of goodness to it."
"Then why did my parents have to die?"
The looked at each other, heavy with uncertainness. Mrs. Quagmire spoke first.
"Sacrifices are demanded of us all. That's why they made the choice to keep you children out of it - they didn't want you to be persuaded into the same sort of lifestyle as them. They wanted you to be safe."
"And then what? What is the goal here? What are you trying to accomplish with all of this?"
"To make the world a quiet place." Mr. Quagmire held her under a piercingly sorrowful look. She averted her eyes, not wanting to meet his stare.
"So your goal is just… general goodness?"
"Our goal is information; receiving and transferring the information needed to protect that goodness at any cost."
"At any cost?" she frowned, "What do you mean? Literally any cost, or,"
"A temporary immoral act can be accepted in the name of an eventual good."
"So the end always justifies the means?"
"When the end is a just world, yes."
"And you are the ones deciding what is just?"
"Oh," Mrs. Quagmire gestured between herself and her husband, "not us, the whole of the organization, with our compiled knowledge and understanding through years of study. It's not a blind decision - it never is. Everything is very carefully thought out and planned."
"And are you all willing to die for it?"
"We certainly go into everything with the hope that it won't come to that, but yes, we are always prepared for that eventuality."
Violet paused, taking all the information in. Mr. Quagmire spoke next.
"We protect the innocent - that's the beginning and end of it, really. Even after your parents' death, we watched you and your siblings very carefully, making sure no real harm came to you. We've done everything to protect you, as the children of our colleagues and fellow volunteers."
Violet looked up sharply.
"You've been watching us from the start?"
"Yes, we like to keep an eye on our own."
The library began the swim before her, the books blurring into one another.
"You knew, and you didn't do anything?" Her heart sank down to her feet, plummeting as it cascaded across her insides, leaving it a pool on the floor. "You knew, and you didn't help?"
Mrs. Quagmire hesitated, an anxious shadow spreading across her face.
"There was nothing to be done. All we could do was watch from afar-"
"You let me be separated from my family? You left me in that house for four years?" She felt nauseous, her head spinning. She gripped at the fabric of her dress, wrinkling it in her hand. "I thought you said you fought for what was right, 'at any cost?' You just said you looked out for your own." She was reeling, even the comforting air of the room seeming more and more like it was compressing in around her, extinguishing her.
"It's not that we didn't want to help, it's just-"
"That saving me and my siblings didn't fit your definition of 'good?'" She stood, angrily, trying not to cry. "You could have done something and you didn't, who decided that was just? Was that also a collaborative decision?"
"Yes, I mean, no, I mean, Violet!"
But she was already out the door, speeding down the hall, trying to swallow down the thrumming sob stuck in her throat as her world flipped upside down.
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AN-
Sorry that updates are getting a bit more spaced apart - I've been working on some exciting things that I can't share quite yet, but be prepared, a whole lot of nonsense is coming.
As always, keep talking to me, keep submitting things, keep asking questions
Cheers