He quickly kisses Nils on the man’s chubby, sweaty cheek and pulls his blade free of his skull, allowing Nils’s body to collapse in a heap at Daian’s feet.

Jindo’s dagger is suddenly in the agent’s bony hand. His knees bend until they appear bowlegged as the agent crouches down to seek Daian’s level for a proper frontal knife attack.

Daian casually, even gracefully steps over Nils, flipping the dagger in his hand as he does and catching it by the handle with ease.

Lexi feels as if she’s entered a dream state, especially when her eyes report that Daian is grinning.

Jindo lunges at him. The two trade a series of feints and blocks with their blades, hands, and wrists, each movement faster than a cat’s paw. The exchange lasts less than three full seconds, and ends with Daian trapping the wrist of Jindo’s knife hand and yanking it downward as the blade of Daian’s dagger slices through the skeletal man’s throat, opening it wide.

He’s already turning away from the dying man by the time the blood sprays half Daian’s face.

Ginnix has remained calmly in the middle of the parlor the whole time, gloved fingers encircling her sheathed dagger’s handle. She draws and releases a loud, weary breath, the only visible sign of her exasperation with the performance of her agents. Now she skins her blade and takes a step forward, her posture shifting to that of a practiced duelist.

Daian again flips his bloodstained dagger as he enters the parlor.

“Daian—” Lexi begins to call to him.

“Just stay back, Lexi,” he orders her in an eerily calm voice she doesn’t recognize.

Lexi quickly reaches behind her body and retrieves a pointed stirring stick from the buffet top, enveloping it in the folds of her wrap skirt to hide it from sight.

“For whom are you working, really?” Ginnix demands.

“I am merely a humble servant of Crache,” Daian insists, though his grin belies that sentiment.

The Ministry agent’s smile is as joyless as a funeral march. “Aren’t we all?”

She strikes first, rushing forward and slashing at him from one angle after another, each time in a perfectly centered and straight line. Daian backs away, staying out of her attack range and avoiding her initial volley. When Ginnix loses her initial momentum he swipes at her head, causing the woman to duck down to where he meets her face with his knee. The blow stuns Ginnix and throws her off-balance. She slashes blindly as she blinks and shakes her head to recover her faculties.