In Chap­ter Six of the sto­ry, Bran­thor finds him­self at his own birth­day cel­e­bra­tion, which has turned into a funer­al-like atmos­phere for him. As his broth­ers cut the cake and the fes­tiv­i­ties con­tin­ue with music and danc­ing, Bran­thor feels detached and unwill­ing to par­tic­i­pate, feel­ing as if his birth­day has been over­shad­owed by an unwant­ed mat­ri­mo­ny arranged by his fam­i­ly. He observes Teal, his new­ly cho­sen bride, who appears uncom­fort­able and shy amid the live­ly cel­e­bra­tion. Despite attempts from oth­ers to engage both of them in danc­ing, Bran­thor remains with­drawn.

Teal con­fides in Bran­thor that she’s nev­er attend­ed a par­ty before, reveal­ing a sad child­hood marked by a lack of cel­e­bra­tions. His con­cern for her tran­si­tions into a real­iza­tion that he doesn’t want to be respon­si­ble for her frag­ile nature, an inter­nal con­flict grow­ing with­in him as he bat­tles with his reluc­tance to accept the sit­u­a­tion. After unrest with his broth­ers about his forced arrange­ment, Bran­thor takes them aside, express­ing his dis­plea­sure. They believe he is being unrea­son­able and encour­age him to accept his match, cit­ing it as part of him evolv­ing into a set­tled fam­i­ly life.

Bran­thor adamant­ly refutes their attempts to per­suade him to embrace mar­riage, cit­ing Teal’s del­i­cate nature as a key rea­son for his refusal. His broth­ers express con­fu­sion about his avoid­ance of love and com­pan­ion­ship as they reveal their hap­pi­ness with their own part­ners. Under­neath, Bran­thor grap­ples with con­sid­er­a­tions about Teal’s pres­ence and how it makes him uncom­fort­able yet intrigued.

Even­tu­al­ly, Bran­thor brings Teal to his home, where he pre­pares her a sep­a­rate room, empha­siz­ing his reluc­tance to cohab­it as a cou­ple. She express­es sur­prise at his home’s size, unable to fath­om its nor­mal­cy from her per­spec­tive. Teal reveals she has noth­ing to bring with her, lead­ing Bran­thor to fetch her an over­sized shirt for com­fort. He final­ly makes it clear that he doesn’t want a bride, clar­i­fy­ing the arranged aspect of their pair­ing. Although dis­ap­point­ed, Teal remains calm, and they share wine togeth­er, cre­at­ing an unex­pect­ed moment of con­nec­tion amidst Bran­thor’s tur­moil regard­ing their future.