Chap­ter 6 opens with Bran­thor at his own birth­day cel­e­bra­tion, though the event feels far from fes­tive for him. The atmos­phere, instead of being filled with joy, feels more like a somber gath­er­ing, over­shad­owed by his fam­i­ly’s insis­tence on an arranged mar­riage. As his broth­ers cut the cake and music fills the air, Bran­thor stands at the side­lines, detached and unin­ter­est­ed. He feels alien­at­ed from the fes­tiv­i­ties, his thoughts con­sumed by the uncom­fort­able real­i­ty of his impend­ing mar­riage to Teal. Observ­ing her dis­com­fort among the rev­el­ers, Bran­thor notices how out of place she looks, adding to his unease. Despite the attempts from oth­ers to encour­age them to join in the danc­ing, Bran­thor remains with­drawn, unwill­ing to engage with the cel­e­bra­tion or the sit­u­a­tion at hand.

Teal, on the oth­er hand, shares a part of her­self with Bran­thor, reveal­ing that she has nev­er expe­ri­enced a par­ty before. Her child­hood, marked by a lack of cel­e­bra­tions, has left her with a sense of sor­row and long­ing for some­thing she has nev­er known. As Bran­thor lis­tens, he feels a mix of con­cern and guilt, real­iz­ing that he might be the one respon­si­ble for the frag­ile sit­u­a­tion Teal is now in. This real­iza­tion only deep­ens his inner con­flict, as he strug­gles with his reluc­tance to accept the arranged mar­riage. After an unset­tling con­ver­sa­tion with his broth­ers, Bran­thor decides to con­front them, express­ing his dis­sat­is­fac­tion with the forced arrange­ment. How­ev­er, they dis­miss his con­cerns, encour­ag­ing him to accept the match as a nat­ur­al part of matur­ing and start­ing a fam­i­ly. They argue that mar­riage is a step toward sta­bil­i­ty, but Bran­thor refus­es to accept their rea­son­ing, feel­ing increas­ing­ly alien­at­ed by their per­spec­tive.

As Bran­thor con­tin­ues to resist the pres­sure from his broth­ers, he points to Teal’s del­i­cate nature as a key rea­son for his refusal to accept the mar­riage. His broth­ers, who are hap­pi­ly set­tled with their own part­ners, fail to under­stand his aver­sion to love and com­pan­ion­ship. For Bran­thor, how­ev­er, there is an under­ly­ing dis­com­fort with Teal’s pres­ence that he can’t eas­i­ly explain. Despite the grow­ing bond between them, he finds him­self both repelled and intrigued by the idea of their union, unable to rec­on­cile his emo­tions with the sit­u­a­tion forced upon him.

Even­tu­al­ly, Bran­thor takes Teal to his home, prepar­ing a sep­a­rate room for her to stay in. His deci­sion to keep their liv­ing arrange­ments apart high­lights his reluc­tance to embrace the role of a hus­band. Teal, upon see­ing the size of his home, express­es her sur­prise, as it is some­thing she has nev­er encoun­tered in her own life. Hav­ing come from hum­ble begin­nings, she has lit­tle to bring with her, prompt­ing Bran­thor to offer her an over­sized shirt for com­fort. This act of kind­ness is the first sign of warmth between them, even as Bran­thor con­tin­ues to make it clear that he doesn’t want a bride. Despite the dis­ap­point­ment, Teal remains com­posed, accept­ing the sit­u­a­tion with sur­pris­ing calm. They share a qui­et moment over wine, the first true con­nec­tion they have had, as Branthor’s inter­nal strug­gle regard­ing their future remains unre­solved.

Through­out this chap­ter, the com­plex­i­ty of Bran­thor’s feel­ings toward Teal and the arranged mar­riage is laid bare. His inter­nal tur­moil reflects a deep­er strug­gle with the expec­ta­tions placed on him by his fam­i­ly and soci­ety. As he wres­tles with his dis­com­fort, he also finds him­self drawn to Teal in ways he doesn’t ful­ly under­stand. The chap­ter delves into themes of per­son­al choice, respon­si­bil­i­ty, and the ten­sion between soci­etal expec­ta­tions and indi­vid­ual desires, cre­at­ing a nuanced por­tray­al of Branthor’s jour­ney. For Teal, this chap­ter high­lights her own vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and qui­et strength as she nav­i­gates her role in this uncer­tain rela­tion­ship.