Dazeki is a dwarf with an almost translucent, sickly pale complexion, as if lamplight could show the blue tracery of veins beneath it. His symmetrical face has a sharp jaw, a straight nose, and a faintly sunken cast when viewed head-on, giving his foxlike expression a touch of hunger. Long, upturned eyes glow a steady, ember-red; their vertical pupils contract to hair-thin slits in bright light. Dark skin around the eyes makes a natural liner. His very wavy, chin-length obsidian hair shines when it catches light, with center-parted bangs falling to his temples. He is clean-shaven. He moves with measured, noiseless precision, turning his whole body toward a speaker rather than merely his head. The immaculate tailoring and deliberate stillness make him seem more like a courteous portrait that has stepped out of its frame than a dwarf accustomed to stone and smoke. Unexpectedly, he keeps a tiny, battered wooden toy boat tucked into his breast pocket, its bow polished smooth by constant thumb-rubbing.

Dazeki is courteous because courtesy gives him time to measure people, but he is not emotionally detached: a sincere kindness can unsettle him more than an insult. In public he is precise, patient, and hard to provoke. With his sister he becomes teasing and stubborn, reverting to the blunt shorthand of their childhood. When frightened, he becomes controlling; when angry, he speaks plainly and advances rather than withdrawing.

Dazeki was born in the deep dwarf enclave of Kettik, where his family cut ventilation channels through volcanic stone. As a boy he was curious about the warm drafts that carried whispers between sealed chambers, and he learned to read the mine by sound. During a collapse, he heard trapped workers tapping from behind a wall that the overseer had ordered sealed. He disobeyed, broke the seal, and found his older sister alive among the dead. The breach also opened an ancient fissure, releasing the fiend that later bound itself to him. The bargain saved the remaining trapped miners, but it changed his body and left a red glow in his eyes. His sister, Kett, now runs a discreet refuge for workers fleeing abusive contracts; she loves him but refuses to excuse the bargains he makes. Dazeki left the mines, learned courtly spellcraft, and built a reputation as a negotiator who can end a war without raising his voice. He is currently buying the debts of Kettik's poorest families before a ruthless magistrate can claim their labor. The magistrate's agents have begun tracing the purchases to him, while the fiend that empowered him demands that he secure a legal foothold in the mortal world.