The assassin school should give him a few courses in this sort of thing!
I think it's really interesting what the paidhi's training does and doesn't include! Lessons in how to protect one's computer; but no weapons training, and nothing on how to evade detection, and living-off-the-land isn't something they have to keep current on. It's almost like they want paidhiin in trouble to die, so long as they lock their tech up first...
much happier with Bren on the plane on the way out
I halfway cracked up and halfway boggled when Bren said, "You were mad at me" and Jago replied "No". Just "no", as if no explanation were required! Clearly there's something even Bren's not interpreting, here...
Oooh, I just went back and read the plane bit, and this time I noticed this:
Bren caught a breath and slumped, bloody as he was, into the airplane seat, with Banichi and Cenedi in eye-to-eye confrontation and everyone on the plane but him and Jago in Ilisidi's man'chi.
"Him and Jago" -- that's Banichi and Jago. Not Bren. Bren's counting himself under Ilisidi's man'chi, most definitely!
does it mean that he's a potential opponent to Tabini
Well, at this point Ilisidi has betrayed her co-conspirators and is working on Tabini's side, intending to return his lost human to him. So maybe right now they've essentially written it off as "he's doing what Tabini wants, for whatever reason; let's make that happen and worry about his ultimate loyalty later"?
Re: Reactions to the end section
I think it's really interesting what the paidhi's training does and doesn't include! Lessons in how to protect one's computer; but no weapons training, and nothing on how to evade detection, and living-off-the-land isn't something they have to keep current on. It's almost like they want paidhiin in trouble to die, so long as they lock their tech up first...
much happier with Bren on the plane on the way out
I halfway cracked up and halfway boggled when Bren said, "You were mad at me" and Jago replied "No". Just "no", as if no explanation were required! Clearly there's something even Bren's not interpreting, here...
Oooh, I just went back and read the plane bit, and this time I noticed this:
Bren caught a breath and slumped, bloody as he was, into the airplane seat, with Banichi and Cenedi in eye-to-eye confrontation and everyone on the plane but him and Jago in Ilisidi's man'chi.
"Him and Jago" -- that's Banichi and Jago. Not Bren. Bren's counting himself under Ilisidi's man'chi, most definitely!
does it mean that he's a potential opponent to Tabini
Well, at this point Ilisidi has betrayed her co-conspirators and is working on Tabini's side, intending to return his lost human to him. So maybe right now they've essentially written it off as "he's doing what Tabini wants, for whatever reason; let's make that happen and worry about his ultimate loyalty later"?
I think it does come up in later books, but not in the next one. So I'm putting this comment in the spoiler thread to be safe.