...She rested her hand on the gambler's shoulder, and he felt it as a chill and a warmth at once, as if standing at the edge of two futures simultaneously. The tavern fell silent. Dice hung between table and palm. In that suspended moment, he understood that luck was never about winning or losing, it was about choosing which world you'd walk into when the moment broke. The dice fell. They scattered across scarred wood with the sound of destiny settling into place. She laughed then, a sound like coins spilling from an overturned purse, and when he looked up she was already disappearing into the crowd, her presence felt long after her form faded...