Shielding Jessie by throwing himself in front of Tisuodo's attack, Dr. Zai denounces the identity of "Rowan." He tells Jessie to go to his tower to find the antidote to his 'Scarlet Thief' poison, recalling his unfulfilled promise to his love Ishluna. Tisuodo and Zai are shot full of arrows by the arriving Police Army and Dragon Tamers. Jessie and Eagle are evacuated from the battlefield in the ruins.
In the Blue Tribe's caravan Eagle is treated for the poison, but the Blue Doctors express frustration with their inability to flush it from his system. Randy sits by Eagle's unconscious body, promising that they'll drink together once he heals.
Jessie rushes back to Lezak and into Dr. Zai's tower, frantically searching through his library for the volume of research that will let her synthesize an antidote to the poison. Dr. Zai's ghost appears before her, leading her to the correct book and asking her to promise she will avoid making the same mistakes as him, and that she'll keep the faith as a Blue Doctor. Jessie swears that she will, thanking him for always watching over her. The ghost of Dr. Zai passes on.
Elsewhere, Eagle dreams. In an empty desert he awakens to see his first love Yuma, and confesses to her that he gave her earring to Jessie. In his dream Yuma leads Jessie to his side and hands her a sword. Dream-Jessie takes up the sword and uses it to draw blood, pressing her blood into Eagle's mouth with a kiss.
Eagle awakens in the Blue Tribe's caravan, with Jessie asleep next to him while Randy stands guard. Jessie's medicine succeeded in healing him.
Life returns to normal in Lezak. The Garicalege is defeated, and the fact that a former Blue Doctor rose to become the head of such an organization has sent the leaders of the Blue Tribe into a period of self-reflection. At the clinic, Jessie readies her doctor's bag and admires Eagle's earring (kept safe and secret in a carrying case) before waving goodbye to Randy and leaving to do her rounds. She sees Eagle on patrol, and he stops to walk with her. They hold hands, and Jessie swears to herself she'll continue to treat the patients of the Lezak district with the people she cares about at her side.
Chapter 15 Provides Examples of:
- After-Action Healing Drama: Happens on two levels:
- After the Single-Stroke Battle that ends the duel between Eagle and Rowan, Jessie runs to Eagle's side. Eagle collapses in her arms, and she tries to treat his lacerations with her blood before Rowan informs her that Eagle has been poisoned with a substance that Blue Ramun alone can't cure. Jessie becomes the target of Tisuodo's rage while she cradles Eagle's unconscious form, and needs to be saved by Rowan.
- When Tisuodo and Rowan have been struck down and the battle with the Garicalege is through, Eagle is evacuated to the Blue Tribe's caravan for treatment of the poison and the lacerations to his side. The Blue Doctors treat him to the best of their abilities, but are unable to flush the poison from his system. Jessie frantically rushes to the Lezak Blue Doctor's tower in pursuit of an antidote to the poison that Rowan hinted at with his dying words.
- Bedlah Babe: In Eagle's poison-induced fever dream, Jessie appears before him in a beautiful outfit consisting of a short top, a scarf-skirt, a beaded, veiled headdress, and lots of jewelry to heal him with a bloodied kiss.
- Book Ends: The first chapter started on Jessie's 15th birthday, the age at which Blue Ramun tribe members finish their training and are assigned their first posting as a Blue Doctor of the Empire. The last chapter ends on Jessie's 16th birthday, with Eagle and Randy promising to prepare a home-cooked meal for her to celebrate the year she's spent in Lezak.
- Collapsing Lair: Downplayed — the Garicalege's underground hideout is never shown falling apart, but Crea calls for Jessie and Eagle to be evacuated as soon as possible because the structure is beginning to collapse.Crea: We have to evacuate immediately! This place is starting to crumble from the east side!
- Dead Person Conversation: The spirit of Dr. Zai appears before Jessie in the Lezak Blue Doctor's tower, to guide her to the antidote to the Scarlet Thief poison and make her promise not to not the same mistakes he made in his life.
- Heel–Face Turn: Dr. Zai rejects the identity of "Rowan", throwing himself in front of Tisuodo's deadly strike to protect Jessie. He dies right afterwards.
- Intimate Healing: Since injured people can benefit from close physical proximity to members of the Blue Ramun tribe, a Blue Ramun elder suggests a tribe member sleep next to the poisoned Eagle while he recovers. Jessie ends up taking that responsibility, after healing him of the poison with a bloodied kiss. She also chooses to do it nude (or at least topless).
- The Lost Lenore:
- Rowan/ Dr. Zai recalls his unfulfilled promise to Ishluna, the civilian woman he fell in love with and couldn't save from sand sickness. He suddenly sees the parallels between his situation and Jessie's, and realizes that if Jessie can't save Eagle she might fall into the same despair he did and turn down the same dark path.
- Eagle's deceased wife Yuma shows up in his poison-induced fever dream one last time and leads Jessie to Eagle's side, placing him under Jessie's care. This moment symbolizes Eagle finally letting go of the guilt he felt over Yuma's death and truly opening himself up to finding love again.
- Magic Kiss: In Eagle's fever dream, Jessie kisses her blood into his mouth to cure him of a deadly poison. In the previous scene, Dr. Zai's ghost had spoken to Jessie and told her to give Eagle the "Healing Ramun's Kiss" to cure Eagle. The name implies that kissing is part of the medicine or ritual that cures the Scarlet Thief poison, and the narrative implies that Jessie smooched the antidote into Eagle's mouth.
- Modesty Bedsheet: Downplayed — The scene where Eagle wakes up to find Jessie sleeping on his chest in the medical caravan barely manages to keep the series PG-13. There's a bedsheet covering them from the waist down, but both are topless and Jessie's Sideboob is barely covered by an arm.
- Mouth To Mouth Force Feeding: Of the medicinal variety. It's not totally clear if kissing is a required part of the antidote to Rowan's poison, but it is implied that Jessie heals Eagle of his poison by kissing the Ramun-infused medicine into his mouth.
- Redemption Equals Death: It's hard to tell if Rowan throwing himself in front of Tisuodo's strike was a symptom of his Heel–Face Turn (he turned good and immediately gave his life to protect Jessie) or the cause of it (he realized Tisuodo's blow was a fatal one and wanted to atone for his sins before dying). Either way, he throws himself between Jessie and Tisuodo to protect her, gets stabbed through the chest, tells Jessie where to find the antidote to his poison so that she can save Eagle, gets shot full of arrows by the Police Army, and dies — all in that order.
- Taking the Bullet: When Tisuodo tries to kill Jessie with his Whip Sword Badass Transplant, Rowan throws himself in front of the blow and gets stabbed through the chest.
- Unfinished Business: At the moment of his death, Rowan/ Dr. Zai was trying to protect Jessie from Tisuodo, tell her how to cure the supposedly incurable Scarlet Thief poison he'd struck Eagle with, and reject the identity of "Rowan." He dies before he can truly complete all three of those tasks, but his ghost appears before Jessie in the Lezak Blue Doctor's tower to check off those boxes. Jessie is safe when his spirit shows up, thanks to the Police Army taking down Tisuodo (and Rowan) with a barrage of arrows and evacuating Jessie from the crumbling ruins of the Garicalege's hideout. He guides her through his library of research to find his notes on the poison. His ghost takes on the appearance he had over a decade ago when he was still "Dr. Zai", respected Blue Doctor of Lezak, and Jessie addresses him as such. The ability to atone for his sins and to reclaim his prior identity of "Dr. Zai" finally allow him to move on.
