The Skarn Reach · The cohort
Bram Sayer
“Bram tied my black wool cravat tight, did not look up.”
Age
19
Height
5′8″
Home
Lowland south (no House)
Dragon
Sashen (small green)
For Mira
Saves her a seat. Ties her cravat.
Never
Asks her about Brennfall.
Bram Sayer is nineteen, lowland-southern, sandy-blond, and bonded to a small green dragon named Sashen. He is the rarest character in the book — a person whose past is intact. He came to Aerithar to bring his family up out of debt and stayed because he is good at this. He retie's Mira’s cravat for her every formal evening. He saves her a seat at meals. He never asks her about Brennfall. He understands without asking. He is the only friendship Mira has, and the only one she will not have to argue herself into trusting.
Their tracks
The album, scored to Bram.
2 of the twelve tracks live in Bram’s emotional weather. Click through for the full lyric and scene context.
Why he matters
Mira does not have friends. The cohort thinks she is stuck-up. The officers suspect she is older than her papers say. Bram treats her like a peer. He is working-class like she is. He is funny. He saves her a seat. The book does not have many places where Mira is allowed to relax. The places it has, Bram is in them.
What he asks
Almost nothing. He asks her how the food is. He asks her if she wants the last of the bread. He never asks her about her mother. The not-asking is the gift. By the time the bond starts pulling, Bram has been doing the work of friendship without requiring Mira to do it back.
What it costs him
The third act. He survives, but takes a wound that ends his rider career. He stays bonded to Sashen for life regardless. The book does not let his survival be free, but it does let him survive.
Bram, in three lines
“Bram tied my black wool cravat tight, did not look up.”
— Track 1 · The Tenth — and the book’s first description of friendship
“Bram had tied my cravat one last time.”
— Track 12 · First Light
“He understands without asking.”
— Mira on Bram, Chapter 8
The friendship
The friendship — Bram and Mira
Easy peer-based, working-class, the only one she has. He defends Aedran to the cohort because she does. He puts a hand briefly on her shoulder when she goes still and walks away without speaking.
Meet the rest of the cast
The Skarn Reach is a small world. They all know each other.
Content notes for Bram’s arc
- Combat injury (third act, ends his rider career)
- On-page bonded peer in danger
Read the book that built them
The Black Bond
She put him in a cage. Three years later, his dragon chose her.
