Short mystery stories

Proof of Purchase by C.M.Teller

There was a certain irony with the situation that Alexander found himself in, he had always found a way to stay ahead of the game to the point that he was able to tell others how to do the same, but now he didn't have a single Cra-i with how much he had. "Welp," he said in finality "this sucks." he said looking over at the. 'Ok don't freak out, you've been here before, you can crawl your way back up. Although, having ten Branchs to your name was great... when it lasted.' Alexander thought to himself, 'You know how to leverage this, just need to get through today.'

Checking how much money he had, Alex was surprised to find that he had more than expected, 'Ok I have enough to last the week, the money is still good for at least another five years going by how degraded it looks' Alex thought. "Food..." he said after a pause, "I need food and to think this through, after all I have enough for me to get everything, they took, back. I just need to plan out my next few moves."

Buying himself a meal, Alex started to think quietly out loud as he ate, "Ok, so this costs two Bran and now I have thirteen Bran and three Bron, what do I have to, I could do that. I could still sell my grandfather's field plate that he fought in the war with. That would put me up about seven additional Cra-i. I need to get my disks and take back my company. Yeah, that I would need to find some way to get all the pieces of the Plate Armor back when I sell it, even if that meant having to bring in The Collectors to inspect The Armor.

"Time would not be on my side this time around." Alex thought for a moment "Twenty days? Before I wouldn't be able to get anything back, and if I messed up once then I would get crucified, no more do overs." Finishing his food, Alex started to head back to his home and make the preparations to move the heavy armor for The Collectors so that they could buy it off him, and with all of his old connections he knew how to get The Collectors attention.

The evening chill of late fall came in with a vengeance as the Collectors made their way up to Alex's house. He had everything that the Collectors wanted to see to make sure that the negotiations could be made. Alex figured that there would be some bodyguards, or something akin to that, but The Collectors that did come up were short, maybe five feet for the tallest put him on edge. Nervous that the plan would fail, Alex opened the door and greeted The Collectors nervously, "Good evening, how-"

"Where is it?" The lead Collector butted in with a fast and enthusiastic tone. He had pitch black hair and bright silver eyes with a pale and pointy complexion as if he had been starved of light and food for weeks. It was a complete contrast to Alex's full blonde hair and vibrant dark brown eyes.

"Jerim." One of the other Collectors coughed.

"Hm, yes, sorry... uh sorry about that. Just, do you really have one of The Grand Legions Field Plate's?" Jerim stated regaining his composure.

"Yes, I do, follow me. I made sure that you all would be able to move it safely out to your wagon."

"Field Plate, should be able to come apart if you know the right sequence."

"There was only one who knew the sequence, and he took it to the grave when he died after he got out of The Armor for medical treatment."

"And are you sure that The Armor was really from The War, the frequencies that The Armor produces can be quite difficult to get right, but we have found fakes out there."

That unsettled Alex, for all that he knew, he knew that trying to fake armor like that would more than likely result in a lot of death on the battlefield if it landed in a merchant's possession, "How would you even-"