Gadi takes up more space than his lean frame suggests: his pale, folded wings spread wide when he forgets himself, and he has learned to tuck them in only after brushing someone with a feather. His skin has a soft, pearly sheen like shell held under water. He dyed his cropped hair a fierce copper-red with a streak of blue-black at the temple; the color has begun to wash unevenly at the roots. His face is long and alert, his eyes a clear amber-gold. His hands are broad, with calluses and faint ink stains from years of practicing strings, copying songs, and repairing instruments. He walks with a careful, sideways drift through crowded rooms, as though always measuring how much space his wings need. People often remember the unexpected sight of him meticulously mending a torn paper label with a needle and thread.

Gadi is generous with attention but stingy with trust. In a shop or among children, he is wry, patient, and delighted to explain how a sound is made. Under pressure, he turns brisk and commanding, sometimes startling people who expect a gentle musician. He wants to be known as more than a victim, yet becomes evasive whenever anyone asks about his past. He can be openly brave for another person and privately terrified for himself.

Gadi was born in a small Hodne enclave whose elders believed a rare celestial alignment would open a passage to a hidden truth about the stars. When he was still a youth, a faction seeking to stage that event seized him and kept him enslaved, preserving him as the intended sacrifice. They taught him music to make him useful at ceremonies and called his obedience a sacred duty. During a rehearsal, he realized the ritual's final verse was not a prayer but a command meant to draw power through the victim. He sabotaged the instrument, fled through a storm drain, and reached Lumaris half-starved and feverish. Phaera found him hiding among the stock in Stars' Shop, took pity on him, and kept him concealed until the search cooled. When the hunters began asking questions, Phaera moved him to another shop they own in the Deepways of Axis Junction. Gadi now repairs instruments and sings for customers under a borrowed work name, while trying to learn whether the ritual can be stopped without exposing Phaera. His closest new acquaintance is a freight runner, Thes, who brings him news from the upper streets but does not know the whole story. His former handler, Sava, is among those seeking his return; the reward offered for him is large enough to tempt desperate people throughout the Junction.