Maleficos calls Melchizedek into the office and reveals that he has heard an anonymous tip saying that Shadowspite plans to assassinate someone highly placed in the Temple hierarchy. He orders Melchizedek to investigate this case more thoroughly, in response to which the unicorn interrogates Zephyr again, then orders Zephyr's lower body shaved so that he can be properly placed into a cast… But before this operation can be begun, assassins come in and kill the barber and put Zephyr out cold. He wakes to find his mirror image, an assassin named Shadowspite – who intends to use him as a decoy when she kills her target, so that the trail will run cold immediately