"Listen. There once was a doll owned by a minor noble family, whose house became diminished by cruel circumstance…"
Diminished all the way, in fact. The lord and the lady and their two grown sons and their doll servant, on their way back from wintering in the capital, drove onto a bridge and did not make it to the other side. The ravine was deep, the meltwater in the mountain streams in the spring was cold, and no one in the carriage could swim. These tragedies happen on treacherous mountain routes. However, while dolls are heavy and cannot swim, neither can they drown or suffer hypothermia, and the doll servant's story did not end there. She attempted to rescue the family that owned her, and when rescue proved impossible, she succeeded in burying them. It was her last duty to their line. Afterwards, as she sat in stillness on the bank of the very river that had claimed her household, the realization came to her that she was free.