Chap­ter 19: Bran­thor presents a tense and emo­tion­al turn in the sto­ry, as Bran­thor finds him­self grave­ly injured from gun­shot wounds. His broth­ers, Teal, Maren, and Nova, quick­ly take action and rush him back to their home, where they make him com­fort­able on the couch with pil­lows and blan­kets. Despite their efforts to ease his dis­com­fort, they real­ize the sever­i­ty of his wounds and call upon Sava and Var­na, two elder­ly gren­del females known for their knowl­edge of plant med­i­cine. How­ev­er, despite their exper­tise, they lack the tools to safe­ly remove the bul­lets from Branthor’s body, so Nova heads out to bring Gwen, a human doc­tor who is mar­ried to a gren­del, to help with the pro­ce­dure.

Gwen arrives with a first aid kit and imme­di­ate­ly sets to work with Nova, expert­ly extract­ing the bul­lets from Branthor’s body while admin­is­ter­ing painkillers. Ini­tial­ly, Bran­thor hes­i­tates to take the med­i­cine, but the intense pain soon con­vinces him to accept the injec­tion, which pro­vides much-need­ed relief. The process stretch­es into the night, leav­ing Bran­thor exhaust­ed and nau­seous. Even though he insists that Teal take care of her­self, she refus­es to leave his side, demon­strat­ing her unwa­ver­ing devo­tion and care for him dur­ing this dif­fi­cult time.

Over the next two days, Bran­thor slow­ly begins to recov­er, though he feels a deep sense of embar­rass­ment at his own vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty. Despite his wish­es to be left alone, Teal moves into his room, where they spend time togeth­er with­out the dis­trac­tions of phys­i­cal inti­ma­cy. This peri­od allows them to con­nect on a deep­er emo­tion­al lev­el, and Bran­thor grows to appre­ci­ate this qui­et time with Teal, which strength­ens their bond. By the third day, he feels strong enough to cook break­fast for both of them and even goes out­side to watch the sun­rise, much to Teal’s wor­ry, but also show­ing how much his recov­ery has pro­gressed.

The ten­sion doesn’t sub­side for long, as lat­er in the day, Branthor’s broth­er, Kairos, arrives, vis­i­bly agi­tat­ed and pre­oc­cu­pied with some­thing impor­tant. He informs Bran­thor that a del­e­gate from the Tem­ple is sched­uled to arrive for a mar­i­tal check-up on Teal, a require­ment set by the Tem­ple to offi­cial­ly rec­og­nize their union. Sur­pris­ing­ly, Bran­thor finds him­self pleased by this devel­op­ment and decides to embrace it enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly. Teal, too, is excit­ed by the news, and begins prepar­ing for the meet­ing with the del­e­gate, con­sid­er­ing which dress would be most fit­ting for the occa­sion and reflect­ing the sig­nif­i­cance of the day.

When the del­e­gate final­ly arrives, Teal is stun­ning in her cho­sen white dress, radi­at­ing the warmth and love that has grown between her and Bran­thor. Over a light lunch, the Tem­ple del­e­gate takes the oppor­tu­ni­ty to inquire about Teal’s adap­ta­tion to her new life and how Bran­thor has treat­ed her. Through­out the con­ver­sa­tion, filled with laugh­ter and easy ban­ter, Bran­thor presents the delayed mar­riage con­tract, explain­ing that he wish­es to for­mal­ly sign it in the pres­ence of the del­e­gate. This moment, filled with light-heart­ed exchanges, solid­i­fies their com­mit­ment to each oth­er, as Bran­thor puts pen to paper. As he signs the con­tract, Teal’s joy is pal­pa­ble, reflect­ing the deep hap­pi­ness they have found togeth­er, con­firm­ing their union and the future they will build as a cou­ple.

This chap­ter under­scores the devel­op­ment of Bran­thor and Teal’s rela­tion­ship, illus­trat­ing how even through hard­ship and uncer­tain­ty, their bond grows stronger. The emo­tion­al growth between them, paired with the exter­nal chal­lenges they face, paints a vivid pic­ture of their com­mit­ment to one anoth­er. From Branthor’s phys­i­cal recov­ery to the excite­ment of the Temple’s involve­ment, this chap­ter cap­tures the com­plex­i­ty of their jour­ney togeth­er. It also high­lights how rela­tion­ships evolve, not just through joy and cel­e­bra­tion, but through the tri­als that test the strength of love and com­mit­ment. Through these inter­ac­tions, read­ers can see the trans­for­ma­tion of their con­nec­tion, mov­ing from phys­i­cal pain and hard­ship to emo­tion­al ful­fill­ment and mutu­al respect.