“Tie them up before they come to, and double-check for any hidden weapons,” ordered the leader of the Collectors, “and when the statesman comes to, prepare him for questioning. I’d like to know a little bit more about the nature of what we’ve gotten here”

“And what about their prisoner?” asked one of them.

“The girl? Bring her over here, we’ll see if they told her anything.” he replied.

The Collector nodded to his leader, and departed. The leader turned the shining stone around in his hand. Faintly, it glimmered in the light of the setting sun. “What the heck are you, and why does the Emperor want you so much?”

The man returned with the girl, nodded, and left.

“Well,” began the leader, “who do we have here?”

“My- my name is Ellie, sir.” stammered the girl.

The leader nodded and smiled. “No need to be so nervous. I may look scary when I’m beating the tar out of Imperials, but I’m actually a nice guy. I want to know what you were doing with these guys.”

Ellie was still nervous. “I, well, uh…”

“Relax!” laughed the leader.

“The man, he called himself the Lawyer, he came storming into town looking for the rock. I had bought it earlier that day because it reminded me of something, well…”

“So this is yours?” interrupted the leader, holding up the stone.

“Yes. I’m afraid I don’t still have the receipt, but…”

“Do you know why they want it so much?” he asked.

“Well… no. I bought it from a junk store.” Ellie could have sworn she heard Mr. Kredaddle correcting her from the distance.

“Well, let me explain to you something, Ellie. We are Collectors. We make our living assaulting Imperial caravans looking for valuables. When we beat down that contingent, we did so under the assumption that they would be hauling some really good stuff, but the only things we found in their possession were one prisoner and a rock. So, if this rock is junk like you say it is, we’re going hungry. And I don’t like going hungry, so I’m going to assume this rock isn’t junk, and I’m afraid I’m not giving it back to you.”

“That’s stealing!” Ellie squealed.

“Technically, they stole it from you,” said the leader, gesturing towards the incapacitated soldiers, “and we stole it from them.”

“But…” Ellie’s eyes began to well up with tears. It had been a really hard day.

“Oh, no, please don’t cry,” the leader begged, “listen, I’ll interrogate ‘the Lawyer’ when he wakes, and then we’ll see if this stone really is worth anything more than sentimental value.”

Ellie nodded and sniffed. “What’s your name, sir?”

The leader scratched his head and winced. “I don’t really think that matters.”

“Is it a secret?” she asked.

“Well- no, but…”

“Hah, hah, he just doesn’t want to tell you,” shouted one of the Collectors passing by, “because it’s a ridiculous name!”

“Don’t you say it!” shouted the leader.

“It’s,” the Collector chortled, holding back a laugh.

“It’s Candiflon!”