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[color=black]🎲[/color][color=gold] 𝒜𝓁𝑒𝒸𝒽𝒾𝑜𝓇 [/color][color=black]🎺[/color]
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Alechior’s grin become impossibly big the moment Yzechr shifted into their likeness. Then the grin broke into a full, unrestrained roar of laughter, loud enough to ripple the not-ocean again.

“Oh absolutely not, you cannot just do that,” they choked out between breaths, “that is brilliant.”

In the next instant their form fractured like a dropped mirror. Dozens of smaller Alechiors popped into existence around them, each floating, tumbling, spinning. All of them talking at once.

“Oh my, look at that, so many of me!”
“So handsome, so fun.”
“I should multiply more often.”

And many more such words as they didn't seem to stop but as if on cue, half the mini-Alechiors began juggling nothing at all, tossing invisible objects with perfect seriousness. The other half started dealing cards to one another, except there were no cards, no deck, no rules, just the motion and the smug satisfaction of the performance.

Only one Alechior, the original full-sized one, stopped mid-hover. They tilted their head as Yzechr’s words about knowledge and turbulence sank in.

“You might be right,” they said, voice lowering into something sharper. “Seeking can be the fastest way to miss what is right in front of you. They’ll run themselves in circles so hard they’ll forget they have legs if they had any in the first place!”

They paused, then smiled again, this time slower, slyer.

“But I hope they prove us wrong. Wouldn’t that be fun?”

A second later Alechior snapped upright. “Actually, let’s make this fun. A bet...” Every miniature version of them froze simultaneously, heads snapping toward Yzechr like an audience at a theater.

“A bet,” Alechior said, tone crisp. “If any of our siblings discover something truly alive, truly independent, truly not created by any divine hand or divine ripple, then you will owe me a favor. A real favor. No reinterpretation, no twisting, no bending the meaning or wriggling through loopholes. Your word binds your form, your essence and all those delightful masks you wear.”

Their smile widened, blades of light reflecting in their eyes. “And if they don’t find anything, then I owe you the same. One future favor, requested plainly, fulfilled cleanly.” They leaned in just a little.

“Fair, unpredictable, and impossible to escape. Now that,” Alechior purred, “is fun.”

[@Cmmelody]