With the amulet fragments and powdered myrrget packed away and secured within the cabinets, Casimir directed Hutch to the door that led out into the greenhouse.
"I'm certain we could both use the fresh air," he remarked, as he opened the door, and beckoned for Hutch to follow.
The greenhouse was a large glass structure with raised planter boxes above a gravel floor in the center, and larger planters, set on patio stones that lined the outside walls. There was an exotic feel to the nature of the greenhouse. It was humid, uncomfortably warm, and smelt of wet soil, fertilizer, and the odd waft of flora scents. Plants, from trees to ferns, filled the outer boxes while the interior ones housed cacti and a wide array of flowers, none of which Hutch recognized beyond the most basic understanding.
"I wouldn't call this fresh air," he said, muffled by his hand pressed over his nose. "What is all of this?"
"My attempts at recreating myrrget," Casimir admitted, guiding him to the other end of the greenhouse where the exit door was located. "I've always known what the structure of myrrget looked like and given the similarities of other plants and creatures on Illimev, I had hoped to find it or something similar enough here that with a bit of genetic engineering and luck, I could force its formation. Unfortunately, evolutionary divergence either went too far or it's from an extinct species. Which seems the most likely. Myrrget is a gum-resin, formed when the trees sap hardens. My first thought was that myrrget was Illimev's version of what we call myrrh. It's harvested the same way, treated the same way, even has a near identical appearance, on the outside. Culturally, myrrh has also been used in religions and ceremonies throughout the centuries, and it's still harvested and used to this day. However, after examining every version of myrrh on this planet I could get my hands on, none of them had the structure of myrrget. So, I've been on the search for plants whose sap did. These are some of those plants. I keep mosses, molds, and a variety of fungi in the cellar beside the second barn. So far, nothing I've tried has been close enough."
"You care for all of this on your own?"
"Julian helps most of the time," Casimir said, leading him back outside and into the fresher, colder air. "But that's only because of his interests. When he got old enough to realize what I was trying to do, he became resentful, but he couldn't turn his back on the plants. He's gone so far as to earn degrees in horticulture, botany, and plant biology. Without him, we wouldn't have a fraction of the plants we do. Normally, he wouldn't miss a chance to come out here with me, but it seems as if you being here was more a jolt than I thought it would be. Thank you, by the way, for answering his questions over dinner."
"Like I said, they have a right to verify what they've been told," Hutch replied, as they made their way around the laboratory and back towards the house. "I should probably thank you as well, for not turning me into the monster in your stories."
"How could I? Regardless of what you think of me, I will be forever grateful that you pushed me to my breaking point. I never would have had the strength to destroy that thing on my own. As long as I was alive, I believed I would find a way to see Celina again, but I knew, the moment you came into the palace, that it was over. I had made my last attempt and it had failed. I wasn't going to get another chance and we both know I wasn't going to live long in that dungeon."
"You would have been given a trial."
"Right, led by the Outlaw King of Cheph, who couldn't wait to see my head on a spike. I couldn't possibly imagine how that would have ended," Casimir remarked, rubbing at the front of his neck with a smirk on his face. "I thought I was sparing myself the torture of seeing everything I'd work for being undone, along with knowing that I was going to die anyways. Others might say, I made a mistake, choosing what I believed would end my life. Perhaps they would be right, if I had been. But unbelievably, it was not the case. Hence, my undying gratitude."
"Gratitude aside, you made attempts to see Celina again? How?" Hutch questioned, thinking back on the time he had spent with Casimir, and he couldn't recall any instance where he'd even hinted at doing that sort of magic.
"Most of what I did is too complicated to get into, but I have to ask you something," he responded as they entered the breezeway, stopping at the side door. After a moment of hesitation, Casimir spoke in a cautious manner. "You're aware that I'm the reason you ended up on Illimev, aren't you?"
Hutch stepped back, his eyes darting between Casimir's. He had never given much thought as to how he'd ended up there, he'd always been too busy to think about it. And to him, logically, there was no reason to bother to find out the how or why of it, since he had no desire to return to Earth. This world, this life, it had been miserable for him. The only future he had seen for himself was a lonely one of hardships, poverty, and crime. Illimev may not have been perfect, and it was far from an easy life, but it was rewarding, satisfying, and filled with an entire community of people who loved him. He had never once given thought to how he'd been so lucky.
"Shit…"
He heard Casimir swear as he felt his hand fall upon his shoulder.
"I should have realized sooner that you hadn't figured it out."
"I just never gave it any thought," he responded, shaking his head at himself. "Ending up there wasn't exactly the worst thing to have happened to me, you know. I'm so freaking confused right now. How did it even happen?"
"I'll explain everything. Let's go inside and sit down. It seems we have even more to discuss now."
Casimir guided Hutch back inside. His hand only leaving his shoulder when he helped him with his coat, and it returned once they'd taken off their shoes.
A dozen questions swirled in Hutch's mind; the how and why being the loudest amongst them. Casimir had taken him through to the living room, and set him on a cushy, dark green sectional at the end with the pillow armrest. Celina was already tucked into the corner spot, a burgundy knit blanket over her legs, book in hand, a glass of wine on the coffee table, as Casimir went back into the kitchen.
"Oh dear, you look as if you've had the wind knocked from you," Celina whispered, tossing her book onto the table as she crawled her way down the sectional. Sitting next to him, she wrapped her arm over his shoulder and pulled him close. "Tell me what happened and if my cur of a husband did something weird, I promise to let him have it."
Celina was warm and smelt of citrus. There was comfort in the kindness that she showed that caused him to melt into her shoulder. He felt heavy and exhausted, and if given half a chance, would have closed his eyes, and gone to sleep.
Casimir returned with two beers, setting one on the end table next to the arm rest, before taking residence on the chair nearby.
"Do you really think that's appropriate?" Celina admonished him.
"No, but he's only getting one, and I'm certain he could use it. I know I do."
Hutch's shoulders shook as he quietly laughed. "First you tell me good news, then you pull the rug out from under me, and now you're contributing to underage drinking. It really is like being friends with you all over again."
"Quit being so dramatic," Casimir remarked, lifting his beer towards him. "There was no drinking age on Illimev, and you're hardly underage now. It's also not my fault that you're too dense to put two and two together, and that's the reason the rug keeps getting pulled, as you put it. The only thing I'm guilty of is assuming you've figured anything out on your own. I thought you had figured out I was the king, ages before I told you. I thought you knew I was human, and since you were returned here because I broke the amulet, I assumed you had realized that it was amulet that took you to Illimev in the first place. Which should have led you to figuring out that it was because of me, Taju."
"Now don't go starting with that," Hutch complained. "It's not like I can help it. It's like Aseda always said, I'm dim. I don't look much beyond myself. So, even hearing you say it out loud, I don't see how the dots connect. I don't get things when they aren't completely obvious. So please, yet again, can you lay them out for me?"
"Gladly. If you would kindly stop cuddling with my wife."
"Cas," she scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Ignore him, Hutch. You are fine, right where you are."
"It's okay," Hutch replied, using the armrest to pull himself back into an upright position, "but thank you. I needed the hug. Would have gotten one from my own wife," he turned his eyes in Casimir's directly, "but unfortunately, she isn't here."