The Scott and Jean Archives
1602 #7 is a heartwrenching issue. Scotius is overly concerned over an ill Jean. Werner approaches to ask about the condition of “Master Grey”. In a fit of distress, Scotius lashes out at him.
Scotius: “All this Master Grey nonsense. ‘How is Master Grey?’ Master Grey is not. Master Grey was a convenient fiction. Master Grey is a joke that is no longer funny.”
Werner: “I...I don’t understand. I thought Master Grey was ill...”
Scotius corrects him that it is “Mistress Grey” that is ill, and Werner is wide-eyed and shocked at the revelation that Jean was a woman, and not “John”. The underlying truth here is that Werner was interested in “John”, and not Jean, and Scotius finally realized that.
Werner: The girl that everyone else saw, the boy that I had wanted so to believe in. I imagined them all laughing at me. I wondered if they understood my shame.
On her deathbed, Jean proclaims her love for Scotius.
Jean: “Tell Master Somerisle I am sorry, now, that I would not give him what he most wanted.”
At her funeral pyre, Jean was raised into the sky, and Scotius cried as he ignited her body, the flames uncannily resembling a phoenix.