Casimir took another drink of water, and then shifted his position, turning to face Hutch directly.
"I put an end to the manhunt as soon as I found out what they had done. I would have gone further, but you knew too much and regardless of everything, you were not innocent. My signature was on the report. It was all they needed to take advantage of my decoy's ignorance on the matter. It's why I never blamed him for his mistake. I had hoped that somehow, the deaths of Levim and Jaawern would have reached you, and that the apprehension order not being revoked would have been enough of a deterrent for you to stay gone. How wrong was I?"
"You never said anything. Every time we crossed paths, after I gave up your secret, and you still never said anything?"
"To whom would I have said it? Casimir Salvador, the king, was a monster to you. Cascel was a lie. The small truth of my name had altered the fabric of your universe. Even if I had found you hiding in those mountains, managed to get you to sit down and talk to me, like we are now, would have believed me at the time?"
"I'm not sure I believe you now," he admitted.
"As I said, that doesn't matter. The tragedy of those days happened regardless. There are a lot of things I am not innocent of, and I've never shied from them. I've never pretended that I wasn't responsible for the things I was accused, when I was in fact guilty. But what happened to the Moahaba, that was not me. I will always regret that I missed what was happening and couldn't stop it. But now there are far more pressing matters we need to see to. Rehashing the past only serves to keep the hostility alive, and for now, it should be put aside. I'd like to focus on getting you back to where you want to be instead, and is that not by Kahlala's side?"
"It is," Hutch replied, wiping the tears from his eyes. "But what are the chances of that happening?"
"I don't know. First, I'll need to examine whatever parts of that amulet you have, and then we can talk about the possibilities."
"Okay," Hutch replied, standing from the couch, "wait here."
Something had shifted in his perspective, and he wanted to believe that Casimir truly wanted to help him, even if the reason was something he didn't quite understand. Most people wouldn't be bothered by not aging. Yet Casimir had appeared almost distraught by the reality of it. But what messed with his head the most was the possibility that everything he knew Salvador to be, was wrong.
Grabbing the box from his closest, he left the bag of myrrget behind. He wanted to hear Casmir's thoughts on the possibility of him returning to Illimev, before he gave him the final piece of the puzzle.
Returning to the living room, he handed the box to Casimir, saying, "It's what you came for."
Taking the box, Casimir set it on the footrest and opened the lid.
"I tried to make a paper model of the pieces I had. Didn't take me very long to see a chunk was missing."
"Take it you were thorough when you gathered these up?" Casimir questioned as he pulled the paper pieces out of the box and set them onto the lid.
"Very. But I can show you where I found it if you want to check for yourself," he replied, sitting back onto the couch.
"I don't think that will be necessary," he said, as he began to remove the small tissue wrapped bundles from the box, placing them onto the table.
Unwrapping a couple of the bundles, Casimir looked over several of the larger pieces, examining them as carefully as he could.
"It's pointless," he muttered as his shoulders dropped. "How long has it been since you returned?"
"Over a month."
"It's rained and snowed since then?"
"Yeah, why?" Hutch questioned as he watched Casimir pack away the fragments of the amulet.
"Because whatever was inside isn't here. If you'll allow it, I will take these pieces back to my lab and hope, by some miracle, I can find a couple of particles clinging to the glass, but dammit… without a proper sample it will be near impossible to synthesize it." Standing from the couch, Casimir headed towards the door, stopping to put on his shoes. "Can you show me where you found those pieces?"
"Why don't you just tell me what you're looking for?" Hutch said as he stood up.
"Myrrget; I think. I hypothesized that what was inside the crystal of the amulet was powdered Myrrget and that the amulet's structure somehow kept it from deteriorating as it normally does, but I could never test it or recreate it without risk of damaging the cursed thing. If there is even the slightest possibility that somewhere out there a few grains of whatever was inside it still exists, we must try and find it."
"And if you had myrrget, you think you could make it work again?"
"Let me put it this way, without it, there is no chance of it ever working. With it, those chances are exponentially better."
Hutch hesitated. He had what Casimir wanted, but handing it over meant giving everything to him, and he was acting too eager, for someone who had little stake in making the amulet function. And even if he was innocent of sending Levim after the Moahaba, it didn't change the reason behind what lead up to everything going wrong in the first place; wiping out the Gaellenok tribe. Casimir was still guilty of genocide, and that wasn't the only time. No matter which way he looked at it, it still made him impossible to trust.
Yet, without taking the leap, he guaranteed would never see Kahlala again. She begged him to come home in his nightmares. He could see her smile. The way she reached for him. The sound of her voice. The way she ran to him and after him. She haunted him constantly, both awake and asleep.
"Wait," he blurted out, marching directly up to Casimir until only inches remained between them. He had hated this man for as long as he had loved him as a brother. He was torn between who he was, and what he thought he knew of him. But this was his only chance, and he had to take it. "Betray me, and this time, I'll just kill you." Stepping into his room, he grabbed the bag from his closet. "I don't know if this is what you need, but the ground was covered in it. This is all I could collect," he explained, holding the bag out to him.
Casimir was silent as he stared at the bag. He didn't reach for it as Hutch has expected him too, but rather, without warning, he was grabbed by the shoulders, pulled closer, and hugged. Taken by surprise, Hutch stiffed up and was immediately release.
"The hell was that for?!" he freaked out.
"Forgive me," Casimir remarked, smiling, even as tears welled into his eyes. "I've spent more than twenty years scouring every corner of this planet for anything resembling what you are holding in your hand."
"I knew it! I fucking knew it!" Hutch shouted as he gripped the bag tighter and ran into the bathroom.
Throwing up the lid of the toilet, he opened the bag, as Casimir slammed against the door jam, his expression full of horror at the sight of him.
"Tell me why you really want this, or I swear I'll flush it!"
"My son!" Casimir shouted back, and the fell onto his knees. "My son." Taking his wallet from his pocket, he pulled out a picture, unfolded it, and held it out for Hutch to see.
Taking the photo from Casimir, he recognized three of the four in the photo; Casimir, Celina, and Clara. But the fourth, was a boy who appeared to be about ten. He had the same dark hair, same features, same eyes, same natural scowl, and same olive skin tone, as Casimir.
"What about your son?" Hutch asked, handing back the photo.
"That photo was taken on his twenty-first birthday," he replied, as he gazed at the photo himself. "He's twenty-four now. Whatever it is that affects me, is affecting him as well." Returning the photo to his wallet, Casimir lowered his head. "Please. I'll tell you anything you want to know. If it's money you want, you can have it. A job, it's yours. A house, tell me where, and I'll buy it for you. Cars, boats, vacations, I don't care, I'll hand it over. But I'm begging you, please, please be careful with that bag."
Hutch closed the bag and lowered the toilet lid.
"Why didn't you just tell me that from the beginning?"
Raising his head, he looked up at Hutch, his eyes now carrying the weight of his world within them. "Because, Hutch, our hatred was never mutual."