In Chap­ter Nine­teen of the sto­ry, Bran­thor finds him­self in a crit­i­cal con­di­tion due to gun­shot wounds. His broth­ers, Teal, Maren, and Nova rush him home, where they set him up on the couch with pil­lows and blan­kets for com­fort. Sava and Var­na, two elder­ly gren­del females, are called for their exper­tise in plant med­i­cine, but they lack the means to extract the bul­lets from Branthor’s body. Mean­while, Nova goes to fetch Gwen, a human doc­tor mar­ried to a gren­del, to assist in the pro­ce­dure.

Gwen arrives with a first aid kit and expert­ly works along­side Nova to extract the bul­lets while admin­is­ter­ing painkillers. Although Bran­thor ini­tial­ly hes­i­tates to take them, the pain leads him to request their use, and Gwen injects him for quick­er relief. The extrac­tion pro­longs into the night, leav­ing him exhaust­ed and nau­seous. Despite his insis­tence that Teal take care of her­self, she stays by his side, show­ing care and devo­tion.

For the fol­low­ing two days, Bran­thor recov­ers, feel­ing embar­rassed about his weak­ness. How­ev­er, amidst recov­ery, Teal moves into his room, and they devel­op their con­nec­tion with­out the dis­trac­tions of phys­i­cal inti­ma­cy. Bran­thor appre­ci­ates this time to bond with Teal, expe­ri­enc­ing a deep­er form of love. On the third day, he feels reju­ve­nat­ed enough to cook break­fast and goes out­side to watch the sun­rise, despite Teal’s wor­ries.

Lat­er, Branthor’s broth­er, Kairos, arrives, pre­oc­cu­pied and agi­tat­ed. He reveals that a del­e­gate from the Tem­ple is sched­uled to vis­it for a mar­i­tal check-up on Teal, a con­di­tion set for them to offi­cial­ly take her in. Bran­thor is sur­pris­ing­ly pleased by this and decides to embrace the sit­u­a­tion enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly. Teal, excit­ed by the news, begins to pre­pare for the meet­ing, hint­ing at the impor­tance of the day as she con­sid­ers which dress to wear.

When the del­e­gate arrives, Teal looks stun­ning in her cho­sen white dress, reflect­ing the warmth of their union. As they make small talk over lunch, the Tem­ple del­e­gate inquires about Teal’s adap­ta­tion and Bran­thor’s treat­ment of her. Through the laugh­ter and light-heart­ed ban­ter, Bran­thor presents the delayed mar­riage con­tract, explain­ing that he wish­es to sign it in the pres­ence of the del­e­gate. The moment solid­i­fies their com­mit­ment, and as Bran­thor signs the con­tract, Teal express­es her joy, cap­tur­ing the hap­pi­ness they have found in each oth­er .