At one of the Garicalege's secret underground hideouts, a young man has just turned fifteen. The child of a Blue Person and a citizen of the empire, his veins hold a weakened version of the Blue Ramun. The young man thanks Rowan for teaching him medicine, and prepares to journey aboveground to begin his career as a Blue Doctor. Overhead, three young children crowd around window to sneak a peek at the ceremony. Suddenly Rowan plunges his hand through the young man's heart, killing him instantly. Rowan then turns to the children hidden above, promising not to get mad if they come down without a fight...
In Lezak, Jessie finds herself distracted by thoughts of Eagle while she treats a patient. He has been away at the Silkdeep Empire's capital for over a week and she misses him. Returning to the clinic, Jessie finds Randy sheltering Mirna, one of the children who had witnessed Rowan kill the teenager and run away in terror. Mira is also a half-Blue child, and the Garicalege has been harvesting her blood since before she can remember while pretending to train her as a doctor. Jessie and Randy comfort the traumatized little girl and work with Lezak's guards to protect her until Eagle returns.
In the Imperial Capital of Dartsin, Eagle meets with his brother Ray Kravitz. Ray has risen through the ranks to become a top diplomat in the snowy northern land of Seldia, which is brokering a deal with the Silkdeep Empire to accept the half-Blue Blooded children that the Empire has deemed illegal. Eagle thinks back to his first visit to the Capital, and how his wife died the day he returned from that outing. His thoughts turn to the girl waiting for him back in Lezak. Ray offers his brother a speedy ride back to the Lezak District on a Seldian dragon.
In Lezak, Jessie is called away from the clinic to attend a birth. She leaves Mirna in the care of Randy and the guards, but Mirna is kidnapped by an enhanced member of the Garicalege.
In the desert outside the city, Mirna is delivered to Rowan. Jessie appears, having caught up with Mirna's kidnapper, and begs Rowan to release the young girl.
Chapter 6 Provides Examples of:
- Badass Transplant: An unnamed member of the Garicalege has digitigrade legs that allow him to run faster than a normal human. He uses his increased speed to kidnap Mirna away from the guards at the clinic.
- Bathtub Bonding: Jessie draws a soothing bath for herself and Mirna, and does her best to comfort the scared and lonely child.
- Child of Forbidden Love: Varie, Mirna, Sharif, and Rosa are all the illegitimate children of Blue Ramun tribe members and citizens of the Silkdeep Empire.
- Cooldown Hug: When Mirna has a traumatic flashback to Rowan killing Varie, she screams and tries to fight off the memory. Jessie holds the distraught child until she calms down.
- Cute Clumsy Girl: Jessie's mind wanders while she's treating a patient, and she doesn't register that she's bleeding all over her tunic instead of the blood collection bowl she'd set up. When she goes to clean up the mess she accidentally stabs herself in the hand. Although it's a gory scene, the tone of the illustrations plays it off like a cutesy mistake.
- Funny Background Event: There are a pair of senior citizens in the background as Jessie first berates herself for getting down about missing Eagle, then pumps herself back up to do a better job as a doctor. Their running commentary on her silly faces is humorous in and of itself.
- Half-Breed Discrimination: Relationships between Blue People and citizens of the Empire are forbidden, and the children of such unions are doubly forbidden. The details aren't made clear in-story, but it's possible that the children aren't even legally recognized by the Empire. The northern land of Seldia has brokered a deal with The Silkdeep Empire to accept any of these Half-Blooded children that are found.
- Human Resources:
- The Garicalege is known to kidnap adult Blue Doctors and steal their blood, but in this chapter it's revealed that they also kidnap Half-Blooded children to harvest their blood, and eventually kill them when it's no longer profitable to keep them around.
- Seldia has reached a deal with the Silkdeep Empire to take in any Half-Blooded children that are produced by the illicit union of Blue People and citizens of the Empire. Even with a weakened version of the Blue Ramun, Seldia will gladly take these children and train them as doctors because the need for healers with magic blood is that great.
- Eagle muses that under the façade of benevolence, Seldia and the Silkdeep Empire have motivations surrounding the Blue People that aren't so different from the Garicalege because everyone desires the curative power of the Blue Ramun. The Silkdeep Empire jealously hoards their small population of Blue Doctors; Seldia will adopt the Half-Blooded children that the Silkdeep Empire wants to pretend don't exist; and the Garicalege exploits the sky-high demand for Blue Ramun by stealing and selling it on the black market.
- Our Dragons Are Different: The northern land of Seldia is the native habitat of wild dragons, though there are tamed dragons that can be ridden. Dragon Tamers appear to work mainly for the government/ military and can ferry small groups of soldiers and diplomats from place to place like an elite taxi service. Eagle's brother Ray has a Dragon Tamer at his disposal while he visits Silkdeep Empire.
- People Farms: Downplayed — while the Garicalege doesn't operate at industrial scale, they do kidnap children, spend a decade or more harvesting their blood, and then kill the kids off when they're no longer profitable.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Mirna manages to escape the Garicalege by running away, but what about Sharif and Rosa? During Eagle's meeting at the Imperial Capital, the Guards are charged with rescuing Half-Blooded children from the Garicalege and transferring them to Seldia. At the end of the chapter, Rowan has a throw-away line where he remarks that "a small country from the north stole a cute little kid from me," before stating that Sharif and Rosa have gone missing as well. It could be inferred that the Guards have already taken action to recover the children from the Garicalege hideout, but the other children are never mentioned again.
