I’m giving the page a second section because page 1 was starting to behave oddly.
As always, wait at least 30 days from issue of the book before starting to discuss. And give our overseas friends some extra leeway: the distribution system doesn’t reach everywhere as fast!
There is quite a lot of speculation going on about Banichi and Jago and their pasts and how they came to be before Bren entered their lives. I don’t suppose you have any plans on revealing anymore tidbits about them? 😛 (Our imaginations are getting quite the work out…)
😉 bits will come out now and again. OTOH, I could do a short story for Closed Circle.
Indeed, yes, you could do a Closed Circle short story!
I think we would all be over the moon for both the tidbits AND a short story!
Absolutely !!!
Here’s a question from way back in Foreigner- the basement interrogation scene. Is the bar Bren was tied to meant to hold a person in a standing or kneeling position? I know he was unable to effectively support his weight, hence the reason his shoulders were injured.
Arg, I hit send before I was finished!
Bren was expecting a working over of some kind (I assumed some form of beating)- was that just his terrified assumption of what would occur, or did they know from previous encounters with atevi that it was known to happen?
Atevi seem to have a very er… refined?… notion of violence in their society. The assassinations are generally legal and done in a specific manner (except during Murini’s reign of course, where it all went a little crazy).
Do atevi get into their own physical altercations, amongst the common folks? Is assault and battery a thing? Do they have martial arts or boxing equivalents? Am I too annoyingly interested in whether they get into totally improper fights? 😛
I am forever intrigued by the little details provided about the lives of ordinary atevi, especially by the reference to them going to “races” (mecheiti, I’m sure) but do they have sports and racing the same way humans do?
I feel like a short story just on the lives of common ordinary atevi would be wonderfully enlightening.
I could just need a life, though. XD
Are guild members allowed to engage in casual sexual relationships in their off hours? Not with the intention of marrying or having children, but merely to handle basic physical needs. Or do most choose to be celibate for simplicity’s sake?
From what we’ve seen in various books, I think the answer is “both”.
Loved the last book! Thanks so much, CJ!
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read Emergence. More than five, probably. I have so many questions, but most will likely be answered in the next book. In the meanwhile, I’ve been curious about a few non-plot related points. Mostly about the ocean and climate.
I’ve been told that weather in the Pacific is mostly placid, except for the trade winds and the seasonal storms. A helicopter pilot who spotted for factory fishing ships told me that you only saw weather where there was something in the water, from big islands down to snags of wreckage or floating mats of weed. Even reefs that didn’t quite emerge from the water at low tide could generate a little weather by creating a difference in temperature from the surrounding ocean. Such things attracted fishes, which is what attracted him. I assume that the same would apply to the much larger ocean on the Atevi world, but a wider ocean actually means less weather, except for the seasonal storms. Would the doldrums be vaster, the trade winds faster? Can anyone say?
Polar ice caps were mentioned somewhere, I do believe, but I can’t find the reference. Have there been any ice ages? If so, what caused them, and were any prehistoric people driven from ancient lands that slowly slipped below the sea? Might traces of lost civilizations be awaiting the notice of someone looking down from the station? When Ilisidi asked Bren about submarines, was there something she knew that we don’t? The curiosity, it burns.
I was once upon a time (long ago!) educated in meteorology, and I am a bit skeptical of your helo-pilot acquaintance’s weather observations (he’s a lot closer if you substitute the word “currents” for “weather”, actually, especially as applies to the presence or absence of fish).
Long-term weather patterns such as doldrums exist due to vertical circulation patterns of the atmosphere. Check out the Wiki on the Horse Latitudes. The doldrums would often catch sailing ships which had cargoes of live horses. If a ship was becalmed for very long at all, potable water would run short and over the side go the ponies. These bands of doldrums are called the Horse Latitudes because of all the drowned horses. Also, ashore along these same lines of latitude (28-30 degrees north and south) tend to lie deserts, because the descending air warms and “gets thirsty” (is capable of holding more water).
“Hadley Cells” is another thing to look into.
Well, he was no meteorologist, nor particularly well educated, but he spent years at sea and he was a keen observer. He was a gregarious Australian, as it happened, and he liked to tell stories about learning to fly, serving in Vietnam, and the kinds of jobs that could be done best by helicopters. He spent many years spotting for commercial fishing ships and flying tourists around the Hawaiian Islands. He may have exaggerated, here and there, but I never caught him saying anything that was clearly not true. He rarely had theories about why or how, but he was very reliable about the what. A good reporter, in my experience with him. For what that’s worth.
Thank you for the references on doldrums and horse latitudes. Very interesting.
When I took my Oceanography course about 25 years ago, we discussed weather patterns over the oceans. According to my instructor, the sun evaporates sea water at the equator, it rises, and is carried by the upper level winds further north (or south in the Southern Hemisphere), until it cools enough to condense and fall back to earth as rain. That happens to be above 30 degrees N or S latitudes, hence the presence of deserts on the continents at thirty degrees latitude.
That explanation is correct, but too limited. Other things influence the circulation of water in air, and where the rain falls.
Archeologists have found signs of human habitations and art in the Sahara desert. The art depicted animals living in a green area full of trees and plants. The idea at present is that there was an early human civilization flourishing in the Sahara desert area, before it became a desert, before the start of the Egyptian civilization that we know about.
At that time Africa was already in the spot on the globe it now occupies, more or less, from what I know: I’m not sure about the dates for the filling of the Mediterranean, the Gulf of Aden and the Caspian Sea, but continental drift takes so long that Africa was mostly in place by the time human civilizations arose, I’d think?
In that case the 30 degrees latitudes does not by itself explain how the Sahara could have rainfall and permanent greenery several thousand years ago, but not now. That physics of evaporation and cooling is fixed, as is the coriolis-driven circulation pattern, more or less, so something else has to have shifted the rainfall.
I don’t know the answers, but find it very interesting!
Here’s a link to an article about the Sahara archeological findings: https://io9.gizmodo.com/what-happened-to-the-mysterious-humans-of-the-sahara-7-563577739
There’s quite a bit of weather in the Pacific – remember, it’s a very large ocean – and we couldn’t see much of it until we got satellites. But the 50-food surf that occurs south of San Francisco (“Maverick’s” is the usual location), and the waves and wind elsewhere along the coast from storms coming across the ocean, say that “pacific” is not a very good description.
Surf waves are more of an influence of the water reacting with the decreasing slope of the ocean floor beneath it. When the water is deep, it circulates in relatively small (relative to the ocean depth) currents just under the surface. As the ocean floor rises up to met the surface, those little circular currents change shape, becoming more and more elliptical as the water encounters higher ground beneath it, before the top of the ellipse finally “breaks” over and forms the crest, which then tumbles forward to create the familiar wave.
There’s a lot less shallow water in that area that you’d expect; the CA coast north of Pt Concepcion tends to have a fast drop into deep water. (I’m not kidding about the 50-foot breakers, either. In good weather, they’re more reasonable in size – but the trans-Pac storms really get some push going.)
I was taught in school that calling that ocean “pacific” was sort of like calling your nasty-tempered king George the Gentle: a hope for better behaviour in future, if you ascribe the attributes you wished they had. Is there a word for that? Wishful attribution?
Or else it was in the long tradition of giving a nickname that’s the opposite of what/how a person is/behaves, like calling a chatterbox Lady Jersey the Silent, or Big Boy who’s the runt of the litter…
No doubt. He taught me that weather is local. Sometimes extremely local.
Science note…
There’s a metallic asteroid named Psyche, recently discovered, that was once the core of a planet. Rich in rare elements and relatively easy to mine, assuming we can get to it. Worth a fortune, assuming the market doesn’t collapse under the tonnage that will become available. Hundreds and thousands of tons of gold, platinum, and so on. Mind boggling.
Oh, and before I go, what about float planes for bush pilots and flying boats for the Atevi Navy? Their new satellite navigation and comm gear would allow them to easily rendezvous with ships at sea. Wouldn’t that be cool?
There is a notable ‘lost civilization’ on the Great Southern Island, which is sort of like Australia…it was the origin of the Marid peoples—much of it is inhospitable, and its culture was wiped out by tidal wave and earthquake.
Tantalizing, but I’ll reserve all questions until I read the things you’ve hinted at that are coming soon.
I wonder how far up the tech tree the atevi might feel inclined to go for ocean going vessels. Powered boats like fishing vessels, certainly, and definitely sailing vessels. Larger ships for passengers, like ferries? Hovercraft? Hydrofoils?
Much of the Great Southern Continent might not be inhabited or inhabitable, but if the atevi start bopping around the surrounding ocean, I imagine there might be demand for an emergency harbor of sorts. Any port in a storm, etc.
larger ships for ferries and passengers. Hovercraft might be feasible, but they’re frightfully noisy and wouldn’t carry as much as a larger ship. They might be usable as exploration vessels, since they can come in off the water and travel across a flat beach, negating the need for a pier. Hydrofoils require relatively calm waters, which would make them unusable in the Southern Ocean, I’m pretty sure.
Good old British and French Navy cruisers, with high freeboard and flared bows, had legendary sea keeping. Maybe a combination of old hull designs and modern equipment?
The Reunioners are supposed to be bringing advanced energy production technology to the world. If so, they could help not only ships at sea, but also every remote village that needs power? Clean power, one hopes.
I’ve ridden either the Swift or the Sure on the English Channel (maybe both: I went both ways)and it is impossible to see where you are: felt some bumps, but not sure how the sea was at the time. I hoped the pilots had really good windshield wipers.
the U.S. Navy experimented with hydrofoils for a while, USS Pegasus (PHM-1), and her sister ships, but they really didn’t serve well in open ocean waters. Perhaps in the Gulf of Mexico, or the straits of Florida or the Moma Passage, where they could be used for interdiction, but definitely not going to work out in the middle of the ocean. Much too small, for one thing, not enough supplies on board to sustain the crew for very long, not to mention fuel consumption. It makes me wonder about the LCAC fleet we have (air cushion landing craft), how much more the Navy will want to use them. Well, after 19 years of being out of the Navy, it’s not like they’re going to ask my opinion or advice. 😀
You squids got all the good toys. We didn’t have LCAC’s yet when I mustered out, but the prototypes were scooting around in Alaska, I think? They sure looked good, at the time.
You know, we’ve not seen much about Mospheiran ways, compared to Atevi and the Spacers. So the new tutors and their little secret society are one of the most intriguing things in the latest story line. It was also good to see Sandra Johnson again. If anyone can teach the kids some basic cooking and housekeeping, it would be Sandra. I’m looking forward to learning a little more about them and the domestic situation for the kids.
Speaking of cooking, there’s something that I’m quite curious about. Tea cakes with icing are mentioned all the time, but what about frosting? Icing is powdered sugar and water, while frosting is powdered sugar and lard. Do Mospheirans use lard? Also, very important, can they make a decent meatloaf?
I would have have said frosting was sugar and butter, but then, I’ve been making buttercream frostings for years lol. What we do know is that they have dairy products- they can make cheese, and cream cheese, therefore butter must be common as well, which means buttercream is entirely possible. 😀 And is, apparently, according to all the human style layer cakes Bren’s atevi have been exposed to lately, lol.
We do know that Bren’s mum made pancakes, donuts are apparently a thing (disappointingly, I thought, but oh well), Bren and Gin sat on the ship pining for roast something-or-other with gravy- brown gravy- and that Mospheirans seem to eat to a lot of fish (or maybe that was just my assumption from something said). They enjoy smoked fish, fruit and cheese. Early mention says Atevi found human food bland and too heavy on the sugar- which is hilarious, because atevi cooking seems laden with sugar these days- but perhaps that “bland” can be read as “simply prepared” which, when you think about it, could suggest that Mospheirans enjoy their food as close to it’s natural flavor as possible. For whatever reason, atevi like their foods heavily spiced.
I thought the “bland” flavor of human cooking (for atevi) referred to the lack of alkaloid spices that the atevi like, and which are poisonous to humans.
I remember reading about Mospheira eating a lot of fish because of 2 things: 1) the Ragi atevi’s rules about the seasonal consumption of meat (and disagreements about permissible ways of preserving meat, with the paidhi supposed to remonstrate against Mospheira’s imports of preserved meat from the south), and fish being always in season; and 2) the fact that Mospheira is an island, so there is plentiful access to fishing (and it’s a reliable source of protein, not dependent on commerce with the mainland).
I’m not sure if all the alkaloids Bren has to be careful of are from spices and plants, or if some atevi food animals also accumulate them in their bodies. In any case the atevi eat animals which are not domesticated, so providing meat from those animals would require very large hunting ranges which I’m not sure Mospheira would have enough room for (large though it is, human population density tends higher than the impression I get from Atevi society).
I’m also not sure how many kinds of human domesticated animals have been brought to Mospheira (nor how those would manage foraging on native grasses, which might contain those troublesome allaloids); considering their care about things like tomatoes and the Ragi abhorrence of farming animals I’d expect them to be very careful with introducing animals. So it’s not clear whether Mospheira could support a growing population if they insist on getting their protein from meat instead of fish.
It isn’t stated anywhere, but with cheeses and knit socks and sweaters, they must have something equivalent to sheep for milk and wool.
Respects, Neco-ji! Buttercream frosting is awesome, but relatively expensive. My paternal grandmother was a professional baker who made a lot of wedding cakes that featured frosting made with relatively cheap lard. These days, many of the big grocery store chains offer sheet cakes made with vegetable shortening frosting, and yes, I can taste the difference.
Lard is a product of the meat industry, which Atevi clearly abhor. No slaughterhouses for them, but what about Mospheira? Do their grocery stores sell cuts of meat, or must people go to butcher shops for meat products? Do they even have butcher shops? I suspect that meatloaf may not be possible, but surely they can still do barbecue? I’m very curious about how ordinary Mospheirans live. And cook.
Atevi are vague on the concept of dairy animals (and presumably fiber animals), as they are keeping their herds for the products they create, but not eating them- so they don’t fall under the realm of seasonal meat. It was mentioned in one of the earlier books. It doesn’t say what those animals were though. The peoples of Mospheira, before the landing, were herders. Well, some of them anyway.
They don’t have exactly the same critters doing the same thing. The eggs are reptilian-like. They don’t have birds. The fiber comes both from plants and from animals, and there are some ‘kept’ animals which are not eaten. Their ethic is to give dinner a sporting chance and preserve the huge hunting ranges. Leather, fur, and bone are all used in various ways, so nothing is wasted. Farming is small-scale and family-run, usually from garden-farms near the cities, and flour is actually produced mostly from orchards, though there is some grain and seed product. Their economy also depends on quality items passed down through generations, often repaired along the way, not so much in clothing, as in household furnishings, dishes, art objects, etc, so consumerism is not them. You inherit your stuff, you save up and acquire quality so it can be passed down. Families rarely exceed two children with any one marriage, but serial marriage is known, and goods pass down the legally contracted line. For instance, Damiri and Tabini do have a contract, even though it is a fairly rare permanent marriage: the first child is in his line, the second in hers.
I could see fancy or high-end fabric being recycled as something like pieced quilts/garments/hangings, so even after the original is worn out, the good bits are still around.
So… flour is a product of fruit or nuts? Or the trees themselves somehow?
Flour is a product of grains/grasses. Both wheat and rice are types of grass, botanically. The first book even mentioned there were domesticated edible grains.
Well, it mentioned the possibility that the grasses were domesticated- from the researchers point of view. We later read that atevi do grow grain, and have something like oatmeal or rice which they cook up and put toppings on (called goda). I was looking for a clarification on the comment “flour is actually produced mostly from orchards”.
That could mean fruit or nuts- the later of which we can make flour from, such as chestnuts and almonds- or from the tree itself, such as the case of slippery elm (which can be powdered and made into a gruel or a tea) or yucca (which is a small tree/shrub cultivated for for its tubers).
Yuca, the tuber, is not related to yucca, the shrub, even though it’s frequently spelled the same. It’s better known as cassava/manioc. It’s in the euphorbia family, where yucca is in the asparagus (lily?) family.
That’s…not actually the point.
The point is, what part of the orchard are they using? Fruit? Nut? Bark? Tuber? Leaves (as in the moringa tree or tagasaste)? Something else we haven’t considered?
Looking at my previous post, I see I did throw in an extra c in ‘yuca’. Typing too fast. Yuca (cassava) the root, is attached to a small tree or tall bush (depending on your perspective) that grows above ground in fields (“orchards”), cultivated for it’s food crop. I saw a documentary where it was being harvested- it looked tall enough to qualify as a small tree to me.
In the 1st book Ian,the guy who meets Manadgi, is a botanist collecting samples of things he finds growing, and is jubilant about finding something that fits the human definition of “grass”. Grains equal grass, I think.
Kimono scraps are a case in point, after the garment has passed through generations. Or that African cloth, which has special meaning.
Invader begins a day or two after Foreigner, if I recall correctly, which means Bren was accepted into a hospital and moved into surgery and out again within a matter of hours.
It also means Banichi has had only a short time to get his broken ankle seen to as well, and yet-
Banichi is walking on his injured leg while Bren can still barely stand up on his own at the beginning of the book. While it was clearly hurting him, he still walked on it all through the book, while Bren was much slower to recover.
Do atevi heal faster, or was Banichi prone to loading up on painkillers and stimulants even then to get himself through major injury?
I remember the dowager’s physician checking Banichi’s ankle after that incident when Bren ran to him, and have a vague memory that it was “either broken or a really bad sprain”, but I’m not at all sure of that! Anybody have the book to hand? If it was sprained, not broken, that would explain how he could walk around on it earlier than expected for a broken ankle, as long as it was well supported.
I just reread the (excellent and so well-paced) ending chapters of Foreigner and first 70 or so pages of Invader and it is unclear if Banichi badly sprained or broke his ankle. In the field, he refused to let Ilisidi’s physician take his boot off and check and, in the second book, he is in pain but walking on it. Bren suspected, in Foreigner, that it was broken but in my skimming, nothing definitive was stated.
I think it was mentioned that “the ankle didn’t rest straight”, which is why they thought it was broken. It was clearly excruciatingly painful- Banichi did *not* want to put any of his weight on that leg, and was not happy when it was suggested that they had to walk the last bit of their journey.
Even bad sprains shouldn’t be walked on for the first few days.
Banichi didn’t want them to take the boot off because it was “holding it together”, so the medic opted to just splint around the boot. That’s why I thought it was broken- Banichi felt it go and knew how bad it might be.
I thought about that, too. But Bren’s broken arm or broken shoulder (described variously in different places) only needs the cast while he is in transit to the mainland. He was never intended, according to his medical notes, to keep the cast on for a week. This presumes some kind of advanced medicine which can make broken bones knit faster than our current natural state. If humans have that technology, one assumes they would have given it to Atevi. Best way to foster good will is to share medical knowledge.
Yes, but medical knowledge is based in biology, including genetics and such, for which advanced computers are necessary (and maybe a tolerance for imprecision, as well as for accepting that genes are not changeable on a numerologist’s whim). The biologic sciences were mentioned somewhere as one of the last remaining areas for which parity had not yet been (nearly) achieved by the time Phoenix showed up, so that (as well as human paranoia, also a factor!) might limit what advanced medical knowledge could be shared.
I think they don’t use casts on shoulders – that would require immobilizing part of the ribcage, which has to move as part of breathing! They’ll strap it or put the arm in a sling, instead. (I’ve had a broken rib; they use a “rib belt”, which I described as a cross between an Ace bandage and a long-line bra: it’s very wide elastic that goes around once and fastens. Don’t laugh, cough, or get hiccups.)
Is this the right place to ask a Foreigner timeline question?
I’m doing a series re-read and paying attention to the timeline to try to get a better understanding of how long it’s been for the characters and when certain events take place relative to each other in book time. I’m finding a few inconsistencies, though knowing CJC’s reputation for keeping meticulous notes I suspect the inconsistencies arise from my own confusion or misunderstanding. Here’s what I’ve assembled, and I’d love a sanity check by anyone who is also keeping track.
The number in front of each entry represents the number of years elapsed since the beginning of Foreigner.
Trilogy arc 1:
0.0 – Start of Foreigner
0.0 – A few days later, start of Invader
0.5 – Six months later, start of Inheritor. Bren is stated as being 27 years old.
Trilogy arc 2:
3.5 – Three years later, start of Precursor. Bren is stated as being 30 years old.
9.5 – Six years later, start of Defender. Bren is 36 (not stated).
10.5 – One year later, start of Explorer. Bren is 37 (not stated). Nine years since Phoenix left Reunion (stated). (Maybe a timeline issue here, since Phoenix should have left Reunion for Alpha at year -1.0 in order to arrive at year 0.0, though we also know time works differently in hyperspace, so maybe this isn’t a problem at all.)
Trilogy arc 3:
11.5 – One year later, start of Destroyer. On or around Cajeiri’s 8th birthday. Bren is 38 (not stated).
11.5 – Immediately after, start of Pretender.
11.5 – A few days later, start of Deliverer.
Trilogy arc 4: (Inconsistencies start here)
11.75 – Three months later, start of Conspirator.
11.9? – Immediately after, start of Deceiver. Explicitly stated as “two months” from Cajeiri’s 9th birthday. This is a little funky because if Cajeiri’s 8th was at the beginning of Destroyer (which started at year 11.5), we’ve somehow managed to lose about 7 months.
11.9? – Immediately after, start of Betrayer.
Trilogy arc 5:
11.9? – A few days later, start of Intruder. “A handful of weeks” since Conspirator. Cajeiri’s 9th is approaching.
11.9? – No more than a day or two later, start of Protector.
12.5? – Immediately after, start of Peacemaker. Cajeiri’s 9th birthday. Timeline inconsistency widens, since now it MUST be year 12.5 (one full year since Cajeiri’s 8th in Destroyer).
Trilogy arc 6:
12.5? – Three weeks later, start of Tracker. Explicitly stated as “four years” since Bren’s last Mospheria visit (between Precursor and Defender?).
12.5? – The next day, start of Visitor. “5 or 6 days” since the signal pickup.
12.5? – Immediately after, start of Convergence.
Trilogy arc 7:
12.? – Some weeks (4?) later, start of Emergence.
—
Some thoughts: it’s never made clear if the earth of the atevi has the same diurnal cycle length as the earth of humans, though it does have the same variant of seasons. Is a day divided into 24 hours of similar length to ours? Is a day more than 24 hours, or has the Mospherian definition of “hour” changed to accommodate the atevi earth’s rotation? Is the earth of the atevi’s orbital period the same? Is a year divided into 365-ish days, or a different number?
It’s hard for a confused fan to construct a reliable timeline when I don’t even know what the building blocks look like 🙂 Can anyone offer any assistance?
I know things have moved on since then and I have really enjoyed reading Convergence, but I just wanted to say that I think the plot development in Visitor is a touch of genius.
Babysitting my 4 and 6 years old neighbors all day yesterday suddenly made me think about the raisong of Jago.
We know Banichi is from the Marid, but estranged from his family and clan. He was trained in the Assassin’s Guild as a young man, by Cenedi and others (some Shadow Guild among them); and by the time he was assigned to Tabini he had his (young adult, but fully trained) daughter as full work partner so was around middle-age.
We also know that temporary marriages can be contracted for the purpose of gaining a child for either clan, the contract specifying which clan. The clan then takes care of the child, even if the parent isn’t capable of doing so (either away at work, dead, or otherwise incapable).
We never hear about Jago’s mother or Banichi’s wife, so either it was such a short-term contract with no remaining ties or contact, or there was some tragedy that they won’t talk about, maybe related to why Banichi is estranged from his Marid origins and why Jago too has no ties to any Marid family or clan (like grandparents or aunts or cousins).
I have the impression it’s the latter, with painful memories for Banichi but no real memories of lost family for Jago (meaning she was very young when they left, or she was born after Banichi broke all ties there), but I can’t recall exactly where I got that from.
Presuming they lost Jago’s mother when she was still very young, and that Banichi had broken off with his family around the same time, who took care of Jago as a toddler and a young child?
A young teen could go into an apprentice program run by the Assassins Guild, the same as any other guilds. But do all guilds including the Assassins (or maybe only and especially the Assassins as they require their members to loosen or cut off their ties to their birth clans) also run orphanages and crèches and preschools for children of their unaffiliated members?
Or did Banichi take her first four years off work, then start again part time (gradually increasing) while she got used to being in school part time for another few years, then work during school hours until she got old enough to go into a residential apprentice program?
That’s the way many Dutch families handle the early years (dividing the working and at home time among the partners and often some grandparents or a day at crèche as well), but I can’t really see the necessary parttime flexibility working with an assassin’s guard job (unless he switched temporarily to something orderly like judge or court bailiff, as that is part of their guild’s responsibilities too), nor would the risk of being seriously hurt or killed combine well with being solely responsible for a young child.
A young child requires supervision day-long, year-round, incompatible for a single parent (without a family support network) with a job that takes him (or too much of his attention) away from her. Being in the Assassins does not seem the kind of job one could do with a baby strapped on in a carrysack or a toddler stuck in a playpen nearby or attached on a long leash, like I sometime see in the mall or the park for small kids in the ‘run away and don’t listen when mom calls’ phase, when mom can’t chase after them fast enough, and there’s some danger like a pond if they run too far.
I wonder if for those years Banichi would have been working at Guild headquarters as an instructor or something similar. It would have kept him current and also allowed him time with Jago.
That might work, good idea.
Now I’m hoping that someday we might get a short story showing young Jago, serious and seriously cute, and Banichi as a dad. I bet he’d be a good dad, when he focusses all that attention on a kid, while he also has that relaxed and flexible attitude, certain he can deal with any and all consequences. I also bet young Jago would be able to stymie that unflappability on occasion!
Oh yes! That would be a super fun, short story.
I don’t recall any such reference to Banichi’s family ties? Only that he was from Talidi Province (which isn’t quite the Marid yet?) Bren once mentioned, early on, that “Banichi was from the provinces”- in regards to Banichi’s slightly “back country” suspicion of astronomers, but that is about as much as we know about his history, apart from what was revealed about Haikuti and some other small tidbits. We know maybe even less about Jago- no idea where she was born, how she was raised, etc. I mean, when it comes to familial relationships, we know more about Tano than we do her, for instance. (Tano stays in contact with his father, who originally wanted him to be an engineer and was maybe a bit offended when he joined the Assassin’s Guild instead, but after Bren sent a card commending Tano for his service to him, their relationship has been much easier, and they frequently correspond.)
So apart from the bombshell she dropped about Banichi being her father, and that she clearly cares about him and his welfare, that is literally all we know about their relationship.
The only one who might be even more of a cipher than Banichi is Algini. And something tells me he has one helluva life story, if all those “bad assignments” have any weight at all.
I seem to remember Machigi remarking that Bren’s accent was “from the south” or something like that — I think this was in Deceiver (the book where Bren first meets Machigi) — and Bren thinking that he got that accent from Banichi. Don’t recall exact details though.
He comments that his aishid’s accent is more Southern. It seems to win him points with Machigi.