In Chap­ter Five, titled “Teal,” the pro­tag­o­nist finds her­self in an embar­rass­ing sit­u­a­tion at a gath­er­ing where every­one is watch­ing her, con­cealed inside a birth­day cake. She silent­ly wish­es that Bran­thor, her intend­ed hus­band, would acknowl­edge her as his bride while feel­ing out of place in this vibrant set­ting. As he approach­es her, his deep green eyes scan her form, reveal­ing he is equal­ly dis­con­cert­ed by the sit­u­a­tion. He offers her his hand, and with some relief, she takes it, express­ing her desire to escape the cake with­out ruin­ing it.

Bran­thor lifts her effort­less­ly, high­light­ing the dif­fer­ence in their sizes, rein­forc­ing her feel­ings of awk­ward­ness and fas­ci­na­tion. He stands much taller than her, a gren­del with strik­ing fea­tures, includ­ing long dark hair and expres­sive green eyes. Teal wres­tles with her per­cep­tion of beau­ty in him—he rep­re­sents a more than impos­ing fig­ure, strong and unde­ni­ably hand­some.

Their con­ver­sa­tion is laden with paus­es as they nav­i­gate the unfa­mil­iar­i­ty of their new rela­tion­ship. Bran­thor’s attempts to make her com­fort­able lead to moments of hilar­i­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly as he choos­es a seat for her that is too high. As they set­tle in, Teal begins to accli­ma­tize to her new sur­round­ings, and as a wave of fel­low­ship wash­es over her, she is intro­duced to oth­er women, includ­ing Nova and Maren, who ease her inte­gra­tion into this diverse fam­i­ly.

The live­ly chat­ter around the table allows Teal to relax as she observes the cama­raderie, rich with fem­i­nism and accep­tance. This sense of com­mu­ni­ty is nov­el to her, ignit­ing both desire and fear about her place among them and with Bran­thor. Teal wants their con­nec­tion to flour­ish, yearn­ing for accep­tance and an affir­ma­tion of her belong­ing.

Amidst the laughs and the delight­ful food, Teal notices Bran­thor’s qui­et demeanor—his pre­oc­cu­pied expres­sions leave her feel­ing an under­ly­ing ten­sion about their mar­riage, high­light­ed by her mem­o­ry of the mar­riage con­tract signed by his broth­er, Kairos. The chap­ter paints a vivid pic­ture of Teal’s jour­ney towards belong­ing with­in a new fam­i­ly while grap­pling with the ten­ta­tive nature of her union with Bran­thor .