hari seldon watched the raindrops form on the wraparound windows of the imperial ground-car and a sense of nostalgia stabbed at him unbearably.

it was only the second time in his eight years on trantor that he had been ordered to visit the emperor in the only open land on the planet-and both times the weather had been bad. the first time, shortly after he had arrived on trantor, the bad weather had merely irritated him. he had found no novelty in it. his home world of helicon had its share of storms, after all, particularly in the area where he had been brought up.

but now he had lived for eight years in make-believe weather, in which storms consisted of computerized cloudiness at random intervals, with regular light rains during the sleeping hours. raging winds were replaced by zephyrs and there were no extremes of heat and cold-merely little changes that made you unzip the front of your shirt once in a while or throw on a light jacket. and he had heard complaints about even so mild a deviation.

but now hari was seeing real rain coming down drearily from a cold sky-and he had not seen such a thing in years-and he loved it; that was the thing. it reminded him of helicon, of his youth, of relatively carefree days, and he wondered if he might persuade the driver to take the long way to the palace.

impossible! the emperor wanted to see him and it was a long enough trip by ground-car, even if one went in a straight line with no interfering traffic. the emperor, of course, would not wait.

it was a different cleon from the one seldon had seen eight years before. he had put on about ten pounds and there was a sulkiness about his face. yet the skin around his eyes and cheeks looked pinched and hari recognized the results of one too many microadjustments. in a way, seldon felt sorry for cleon-for all his might and imperial sway, the emperor was powerless against the passage of time.

once again cleon met hari seldon alone-in the same lavishly furnished room of their first encounter. as was the custom, seldon waited to be addressed.

after briefly assessing seldon's appearance, the emperor said in an ordinary voice, "glad to see you, professor. let us dispense with formalities, as we did on the former occasion on which i met you."

"yes, sire," said seldon stiffly. it was not always safe to be informal, merely because the emperor ordered you to be so in an effusive moment.

cleon gestured imperceptibly and at once the room came alive with automation as the table set itself and dishes began to appear. seldon, confused, could not follow the details.

the emperor said casually, "you will dine with me, seldon?"

it had the formal intonation of a question but the force, somehow, of an order.

"i would be honored, sire," said seldon. he looked around cautiously. he knew very well that one did not (or, at any rate, should not) ask questions of the emperor, but he saw no way out of it. he said, rather quietly, trying to make it not sound like a question, "the first minister will not dine with us?"

"he will not," said cleon. "he has other tasks at this moment and i wish, in any case, to speak to you privately."

they ate quietly for a while, cleon gazing at him fixedly and seldon smiling tentatively. cleon had no reputation for cruelty or even for irresponsibility, but he could, in theory, have seldon arrested on some vague charge and, if the emperor wished to exert his influence, the case might never come to trial. it was always best to avoid notice and at the moment seldon couldn't manage it.

surely it had been worse eight years ago, when he had been brought to the palace under armed guard. -this fact did not make seldon feel relieved, however.

then cleon spoke. "seldon" he said. "the first minister is of great use to me, yet i feel that, at times, people may think i do not have a mind of my own. do you think that?"

"never, sire," said seldon calmly. no use protesting too much.

"i don't believe you. however, i do have a mind of my own and i recall that when you first came to trantor you had this psychohistory thing you were playing with."

"i'm sure you also remember, sire," said seldon softly, "that i explained at the time it was a mathematical theory without practical application."

"so you said. do you still say so?"

"yes, sire."

"have you been working on it since?"

"on occasion i toy with it, but it comes to nothing. chaos unfortunately interferes and predictability is not-"

the emperor interrupted. "there is a specific problem i wish you to tackle. -do help yourself to the dessert, seldon. it is very good."

"what is the problem, sire?"

"this man joranum. demerzel tells me-oh, so politely-that i cannot arrest this man and i cannot use armed force to crush his followers. he says it will simply make the situation worse."

"if the first minister says so, i presume it is so."

"but i do not want this man joranum . at any rate, i will not be his puppet. demerzel does nothing."

"i am sure that he is doing what he can, sire."

"if he is working to alleviate the problem, he certainly is not keeping me informed."

"that may be, sire, out of a natural desire to keep you above the fray. the first minister may feel that if joranum should-if he should-"

"take over," said cleon with a tone of infinite distaste.

"yes, sire. it would not be wise to have it appear that you were personally opposed to him. you must remain untouched for the sake of the stability of the empire."

"i would much rather assure the stability of the empire without joranum. what do you suggest, seldon?"

"i, sire?"

"you, seldon," said cleon impatiently. "let me say that i don't believe you when you say that psychohistory is just a game. demerzel stays friendly with you. do you think i am such an idiot as not to know that? he expects something from you. he expects psychohistory from you and since i am no fool, i expect it, too. -seldon, are you for joranum? the truth!"

"no, sire, i am not for him. i consider him an utter danger to the empire."

"very well, i believe you. you stopped a potential joranumite riot at your university grounds single-handedly, i understand."

"it was pure impulse on my part, sire."

"tell that to fools, not to me. you had worked it out by psychohistory."

"sire!"

"don't protest. what are you doing about joranum? you must be doing something if you are on the side of the empire."

"sire," said seldon cautiously, uncertain as to how much the emperor knew. "i have sent my son to meet with joranum in the dahl sector."

"why?"

"my son is a dahlite-and shrewd. he may discover something of use to us."

"may?"

"only may, sire."

"you'll keep me informed?"

"yes, sire."

"and, seldon, do not tell me that psychohistory is just a game, that it does not exist. i do not want to hear that. i expect you to do something about joranum. what it might be, i can't say, but you must do something. i will not have it otherwise. you may go."

seldon returned to streeling university in a far darker mood than when he had left. cleon had sounded as though he would not accept failure.

it all depended on raych now.