Sagal

Sagal is Ela's husband (Alya's sister) and Minalan's brother-in-law, a Boval Vale farmer of the Southridge fold. Described as "a bear of a farmer." Traveling to Hymas with Alya for "some shears and some tonic, Sagal's got a sick calf," he is nearly killed in a gurvani ambush; Minalan stabilizes him, carts him home on an improvised litter, and performs deep-tissue healing that knits together a gut wound, nicked intestine, crushed shoulder, and fractured scapula. This is Minalan's first use of irionite in healing. Alya later admits she slept with Minalan in part "hoping that if I humped you there in the meadow, you'd perhaps overlook any fees for healing up Sagal that he couldn't afford."

Sagal is a recurring figure in Sevendor's founding. He arrives with Minalan's caravan as they first view Sevendor and delivers the now-famous line:

What a shithole. What an utterly destitute, deserted shithole. Begging your pardon, Min.

Minalan installs Sagal at the Southridge yeomanry, where he rescues the failing estate, grows it into a horse-breeding and hostelry operation, and later turns the neighboring Hollyburrow over to Master Olmeg. At Yule Court, Minalan ennobles Olmeg, Banamor, and Sagal. Hosts Rondal in his rustic household.

Sagal's Southridge estate has "tripled in size" and now hosts visiting nobility at premium rates "like owning a gold mine." His hostelry is tallied separately from Sevendor's sixteen taphouses and nine inns. He petitions to add rental cottages along the road. A commercial triumph built on the back of his earlier near-death escape.

Now "my other brother-in-law, Lord Sagal (Alya's sister Ela's husband, if you're keeping track)," he "runs a lucrative trade in hostelries from his estate of Southridge." He stops by Minalan's workshop to present a bill for rented rooms during Tavard's pilgrimage; Minalan pays him on the spot. His Southridge cheeses also get name-dropped.

Brief cameo in the birthing-chamber scene:

'Are we out of cheese? I think we're out of cheese,' my brother-in-law Sagal grumbled, as he searched the buffet table. His wife kindly elbowed him in the kidneys on my behalf.

Minalan takes dinner with Sagal and Ela "the lords of Southridge estate" while Alya is away. After Alya returns, she spends two days at Southridge with Ela and Sagal, rebuilding her memories.