Tabini–Bren relationship

Tabini and Bren’s relationship is a partnership of increasing political trust: Tabini first welcomes Bren as an unusually accessible paidhi, then relies on his judgment in dealings with Ilisidi, Mospheira, and the returned starship. Its decisive test comes when Tabini entrusts Bren with investigating the truth in space and includes him in the household he sends beyond his enemies’ reach.

A Paidhi Tabini Could Speak With

Tabini had reason to approach a new paidhi cautiously. The previous one, Wilson-paidhi, was an older man, and Tabini could not know whether the next human would be an ideologue or arrive with an agenda of his own. Bren immediately answered one important hope: Tabini was delighted to have a paidhi his own age, and one who could speak without writing everything down and consulting a dictionary. Their potential relationship began with conversation made direct and practical.

That prospect mattered amid several overlapping political concerns. Tabini was hearing about developments on Mospheira and in the Marid, while also contemplating a relationship with Lord Tatiseigi’s niece. Before he could develop a relationship with Bren, he needed to enlist Ilisidi, who had reared him, as an ally rather than face her as a potential adversary. The paidhi’s arrival therefore became part of a larger effort to manage family, diplomacy, and mainland politics together.

Bren as a Bridge to Ilisidi

Ilisidi had retired to Malguri, where she held occasional meetings with her Eastern neighbors—meetings Tabini suspected concerned him. She had said she wanted to speak with the new paidhi, and Tabini judged that Bren might reach her private fortress and persuade her that he was very different from Wilson-paidhi. He attached bodyguards and sent Bren to her.

The assignment joined trust with risk. Tabini had already assigned two of his personal bodyguards to get Wilson-paidhi safely onto a plane, fearing that another power, possibly Ilisidi herself, might prevent the former paidhi from reporting all the details of his dealings with her. In Bren’s case, an attempt was made on the new paidhi’s life. Yet Tabini still sent him into the encounter on which his own relationship with Ilisidi depended. The move succeeded in drawing her attention: she understood what her grandson was doing, returned to Shejidan of her own will, and was intensely engaged, though suspicious. Bren, for his part, was engaged as well.

Cooperation in Government and Diplomacy

Tabini’s reliance on Bren soon extended beyond the family’s political circle. He gained minor concessions from the new paidhi and annoyed the Conservatives by sending blueprints of numerous trivial machines to the Scholars’ Guild. He also held his ground in a dispute over the Assassins’ Guild’s prerogative: he would not allow Filing on monetary matters until officials of the Treasurers’ Guild had testified. The Guild protested, but Tabini maintained his position and the rule held. These episodes place Bren’s early cooperation within a government where technical exchange, procedure, and institutional authority were all contested.

More directly, Tabini gained Bren’s cooperation in increasing communication with the Mospheiran government, despite rising anti-Atevi sentiment among certain groups on the island. The improved relations themselves stirred Mospheiran radicals who wanted separation rather than cooperation; their rumor campaign mixed falsehood with enough fact to make the public uneasy. Bren’s visits carried some risk, though Mospheiran tradition forbade an overt display of protection. The partnership thus depended on continuing contact even when political opponents sought to make that contact alarming.

Advice After the Phoenix Returned

When the Phoenix crew returned, suspicion ran deep. Bren assured Tabini and Ilisidi that the Mospheiran government had not expected the ship’s return and was determined to gain control of the station, preventing both the ship from doing so and radicals from reaching space or advanced technology. He argued that preserving Atevi rights required direct talks between the Atevi and the ship-folk. The Aishidi’tat, not Mospheira, should be made clear as the local authority; the Atevi should also offer to ally with the Mospheirans in seeking control of the station and be prepared to share that authority.

The proposal treated Bren not simply as a source of information about humans, but as an adviser able to identify a way for the Atevi to act without surrendering their political standing. It also confronted a practical obstacle: the starship pilots could not fly in an atmosphere, while Atevi and Mospheiran pilots who could fly in atmosphere and gravity could not fly in space. His counsel addressed the political arrangement, but the divide in technical experience made the new partnership necessary as well as difficult.

The Space Mission and Its Stakes

The returned ship’s confession that it had deceived them angered Tabini, who already had pushed the citizenry to the limits of its patience. Suspicious that neither the Atevi nor the Mospheirans had been given the truth, he decided to investigate the situation in space and check the Phoenix captains’ account. He charged Bren, who knew humans, and Ilisidi, who would not be put off with lies, with finding out what had happened. Tabini also sent his son, Cajeiri, so he could learn new knowledge, understand humans, and receive instruction from Ilisidi, the woman who had taught Tabini himself.

This decision turned their relationship into an assignment with consequences for the future of Tabini’s household and government. The journey was a desperate gamble: Tabini did not know the scale of the universe, that the ship could not communicate across that distance, or how dangerous the mission would be. Even so, he placed Bren among the people on whom the investigation depended.

Tabini then made the broader decision to put his scattered household beyond his enemies’ reach. The group included Cajeiri, Ilisidi—who had ruled the Aishidi’tat more than once—and Bren, described as the paidhi-aiji who could understand humans. He also placed a technologically adept Atevi population in the heavens under Lord Geigi, who could reach Earth if given a target and an order. The contingency was explicit: if Tabini died, Ilisidi and Cajeiri could return with power in the heavens and reclaim the Aishidi’tat; if they could not return, Geigi and the Atevi there could declare an aijinate, contact reliable lords on Earth, and reshape the polity to preserve Atevi control. Bren’s place in that plan confirms the relationship’s change: the once-new paidhi had become part of Tabini’s strategic trust.