Warning: Contains "Prelude to Foundation" and "Forward the Foundation" spoilers.
Disclaimer: I only felt the urge to write this little missing piece. Otherwise I own nothing.
"What is essential is invisible to the eye."
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
ooOOOoo
The midday breeze blew gently through the window and brought all the subtle scents of the Imperial garden along. It was a wonderfully sunny, shiny day; perhaps too good for yet another routine luncheon with the First Minister. But was routine truly the exact word? Well, maybe. It had been scheduled as that at the least.
However, the whole arrangement had changed diametrically the moment when – supposedly on a whim – Cleon decided to shake off his Imperial dignity and play hide and seek for a while. Carefully he managed to wriggle out of the rigid clutch of the court etiquette, and escaped as quickly and quietly as a man of his status ever could.
He arrived early (just as he had intended), while the horrified servants were still in the middle of setting the table. After the preparations were done, the Emperor sent each and every one of the staff away, took his seat and waited.
And now, as he heard the soft, but unmistakable rustle of his First Minister's robes, he allowed himself a little, yet absolutely complacent smile. Never turning after the noise, Cleon sighed lightly.
"Such a wonderful day." He said, finally fully relaxing into his chair.
"Pardon me, Sire. I am late." Demerzel proclaimed with a proper amount of shame.
"Are you now?" Cleon looked over his shoulder to examine the self-declared offender. "Check the time, will you? It's me who came early."
"You arrived at your leisure, Sire. It is my fault I did not react properly to the situation." Was the First Minister's measured answer.
At first, Cleon just watched intently, as if trying to find and absorb something from the air between the two. "How many times have I actually managed to do this, Demerzel?"
"Do what, Sire?"
"What?" Cleon shrugged with a smile of light disbelief. It was so obvious. "Surprise you!" He declared, bathing in the feeling of victory. "Through all these years… You know, it isn't quite an easy task by itself, not to mention whenever I try to do something unusual, the whole court starts swarming around me like bees."
"Everyone is mindful of their duty…" Demerzel spoke in a careful, conciliatory tone.
"Oh, stop it!" Cleon retorted and rose up. "What everyone is mindful of is keeping me under constant supervision. However, today I outsmarted them. All of them, including you. So let me enjoy it!"
"As you wish, Sire."
"Just look at you," Cleon said, leaving Demerzel's answer unnoticed. "Your face shows nothing, not a slightest bit of emotion, but inside, oh, I know what is going on right there." He went on, inspecting his companion with narrow eyes, advancing slowly.
"I am listening, Sire."
"You try all you can to deal with the fact that something deviated from your carefully elaborated plan, and all the rigid machinery inside you goes overheated. No, it's stuck!" The Emperor exclaimed. "Going out of your control equals to inserting a pebble in between these toothed wheels of yours, and your insides collide and collapse in attempt to crunch it!" He concluded heatedly, clenching his fist in front of him to illustrate his speech.
"A very interesting thought, Sire. Anyway, I deeply regret that I – "
"Please, spare me those vain, automatic little phrases!" Cleon retorted abruptly. "I can feel what's going on behind your unshaken façade, and I merely wish to feel it a bit longer. I deserve it, don't you think? After all those ages you tortured me with what was appropriate and what was not? You ruin me, my friend, continually and utterly, you ruin me! So please don't take away from me these few rare occasions when I can give it back!" The ruler demanded, his eyes glaring.
After that, a short lived silence settled around, until Demerzel spoke again.
"Yes, Sire. I too feel ruined now." He said calmly.
"Don't you dare mock me…" Cleon gritted his teeth.
"That was never my intention." Demerzel assured.
"Truly?" The Emperor replied with a menacingly smooth voice, inclining his head. "Intentions are one thing, my friend. The effect is the other." He concluded after a tense moment.
"I shall try to be aware of that." Was the simple answer.
"You shall try? Splendid!" Cleon cried out as he swayed forward, holding his head high and hands joined behind his back. However, as he observed the unwavering stillness of his companion, the ruler too finally yielded and his expression slowly relaxed. "Very well then. After utterly ruining each other, how about we moved on and ate our lunch?" He suggested.
"Certainly, Sire." The Minister agreed.
ooOOOoo
At first, a somewhat stiff silence enclosed them, silence made of thoughts unspoken. And on Cleon's side, perhaps even thoughts barely thought, as the ruler was long not quite sure his First Minister was not a mind-reader.
But then, to Cleon's own little surprise, Demerzel spoke first. "Sire, is there anything you wished to discuss with me?"
"Discuss?" Cleon asked back, raising his eyebrows. He sipped at his glass of water, finishing it, and as there were no servants anywhere near them, he waited patiently for Demerzel to refill it. "Well, yes, I wished to discuss some matters with you."
"Then I am listening, Sire."
"And when are you not…" Cleon muttered more or less to himself, shaking the content of his glass thoughtfully. "Anyway," he changed the subject and the tone of his voice abruptly. "Yesterday I re-watched the holovision program where you had spoken." He announced as indifferently as he could.
"Yes." The First Minister nodded in acknowledgement. "Were you still satisfied with my answers?"
"With all honesty, your speech had its usual standard – and that should be taken as a compliment – but something else entirely intrigued me about that broadcast." Cleon revealed, his voice lowering ever so slightly at the end of the statement. He raised his eyes to meet his companion's. "It was the way you laughed. I mean… It was quite unexpected."
Demerzel stayed still, his expression unchanged. "It was the best way to disprove the accusation, Sire."
"Oh yes, that horrible accusation... Of course, the laughter was appropriate. I must admit you played it quite amazingly." The Emperor said, observing his servant's reaction.
"May I take this as a compliment, too?" The latter asked in reply.
"You should." Cleon suggested, pointing his forefinger.
"Thank you, Sire." Demerzel nodded respectfully. "However, was it that obvious that my laughter was not meant?"
"Obvious as the sun on the sky." The Emperor confirmed. "At least for me. Many others even laughed with you." He added a bit derisively.
"May I ask how did you find out?" The minister asked, his voice lacking any disturbance.
"Because I have never seen you laugh before." Cleon leaned back in his seat, and let his hands land gracefully on the armrests. "And I have known you for so long… Since ever, it seems to me."
"To the best of my knowledge, we have never been in any such situation – " Demerzel began thoughtfully.
"No, no, no, my friend." The ruler cut in mercilessly. "Let's leave out the possibilities and situations. Laughter is simply not natural to you. I know you'd never laugh, even if I were the best anecdote-teller in the Empire."
"What makes you think so?" Demerzel asked with a subtle hint in his voice, which might well have been curiosity.
"Slowly, my friend, we are getting at it." Cleon said lazily, smirking and trying to catch any sign of an emotional stir within the always self-composed First Minister. "Now, I am certain that you are aware that no one is listening to us, and I promise you – I give you my word as an Emperor – that what we say here, stays here."
"Are we discussing a matter of a delicate nature, Sire?" The Minister dared speculate.
"You tell me, dear Demerzel." Cleon replied, narrowing his eyes.
"Sire?"
At first, Cleon remained silent, as if unable to make the final decision he was preparing for the whole time. Yet he kept his eyes locked firmly with the person across the small table, unyielding. And then he simply drew in a breath and spoke. "As for the accusation you were confronted with. Tell me the truth." He requested, and felt literally every muscle tighten in his body.
On the other hand, Demerzel remained perfectly peaceful and calm, as was always his nature, even when he opened his mouth to say: "As for the accusation I was confronted with, I can only tell you this. It was true." He claimed, his gaze firm, his voice unshaken, as if what he had just revealed were merely another new law or policy to be discussed.
"You are a robot, after all." Cleon heard himself say. But those words… what did they actually mean?
"I am." Demerzel confirmed serenely. "I was built by humans, millennia ago."
It took another breath, and then one more, and Cleon finally relaxed in his seat. Slowly he leaned against the backrest and kept on studying his First Minister, saying nothing. He had planned this conversation, but what he had not foreseen was his own reaction. And now he felt surprised in a sense, however, not by the truth that had just transpired, but by the fact that he was not surprised at all.
"You do not seem overly surprised." The First Minister observed.
"That is because I am not." Cleon answered, feeling much more at ease. "You see, the entire Galaxy may see me as an incompetent fool when they watch me fulfill my duties and all the public exercise I have to perform." He began, his voice surprisingly steady and unconcerned, despite the meaning of his statement.
"However, I was born and raised for this, and I've grown very good at it when I was still a child. Do you know what it means? It means that these everyday performances I do automatically, I no longer have to think about them. I know exactly what to say and when, at whom should I wave my hand and nod my head… And meanwhile I can think of other matters. And I think a lot. And I observe. And after all the time of this practice, I have come to a complete knowledge of every single person of my court. I know everything about them, I know where they come from, I know how they think, what will they say, what they wish to hear, who is whose ally and who's foe, I know what drives them, what they desire… I know this about everyone. Everyone except you." Cleon explained, his stare never tearing off Demerzel's eyes.
"When I tried to discover what was it you really wanted, what you really were, I could never deduce anything tangible. I studied everything about you, your speech, your attitude, the way you look, the way you eat, the way you dress… And the picture was still so strange, as if you were a puzzle that won't make any sense until the very last missing piece is put into place. And just this little missing piece I couldn't find anywhere, until Joranum launched his pitiful affair. Of course I immediately denounced it and then observed with relief how this farce failed, but when I saw you laugh in that program, it felt equally unexpected as the accusation itself. I could not stop thinking about it – and I tell you truly that I must have seen the broadcast twenty times at the least, and each time I felt less and less convinced by you. And so Joranum's idea again invaded my mind. Again and again, I went through everything I have learned about you during all those years… And for the first time I had a feeling that the missing piece was within arm's reach. All it took was to make sure. So I decided to do something I hadn't done for a while now, that is surprise you and drive you into some reaction, to an emotional stir. I even insinuated… You know, the thing with the pebble and toothed wheels."
"Yes, Sire. And will all respect, I must admit I considered it quite witty. If I were able to laugh, I am sure I would have to try hard not to start doing just that."
"I'll take it as a compliment. However, we both know that my effort was in vain." Cleon went on. "I was quite enraged that I had only one option left. And that option was to ask you. Honestly I didn't expect much from that either, but it worked. And when you told me the truth, I had finally the missing piece of the puzzle called Eto Demerzel in my hand and could put it into place. Well, and everything is so clear now. Of course, the fact that you're a robot is a rather bizarre resolution, but in the light of everything I have ever learned about you perfectly logical."
"It is indeed." Demerzel agreed. "But you had also other options how to validate your assumption."
"Yes, I had. But those would have been very unpleasant, quite probably for all of us. And regarding the current complex situation of the Empire, it wasn't my intention to involve anyone else in this."
"That was forethoughtful, Sire."
"Thank you." The Emperor nodded complacently, crossed his legs, joined his hands in front of him and rested them in his lap. "And now tell me, what motive brings a robot built by humans to the position of an effective rule over the Galaxy?"
Demerzel no longer even tried to deny the fact. He merely returned the intense gaze Cleon was giving him. "The motive is the same as the purpose I exist for." He announced and added: "A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm."
It took Cleon a few moments to at least partly absorb the message. Completely still and silent, he processed the thought, trying to align this sudden new knowledge with the schemes and philosophy he had followed all his life. Finally, he focused on his companion once again. "Then it appears I could not have wished for a better First Minister."
"No." was the frank reply.
Cleon threw back his head and laughed. "This is a wonderful day, indeed. In all aspects." He commented then, still smiling, and took a look out of the window. "Have you just smiled?" He asked upon turning back to Demerzel.
"Yes, Sire. It felt appropriate to me." The latter replied, and the hint of the smile lingered on his serene face until his expression grew solemn again. "However, as we have come to discussing matters of such relevance, I have something more to say. I fear that the time of my service is coming to an end."
"To an end? How?" Cleon cried out, raising his eyebrows. "I have just finally got the chance to really know you!"
"Nonetheless, I must leave, Sire, and disappear. I have occupied my post for too long now. Remaining in my position may endanger the stability of the Empire."
"And what shall I do?" Cleon asked, quite aggrieved.
"Employ a new First Minister, Sire." Demerzel replied simply. "My suggestion is Hari Seldon."
"Ah, of course! Dr. Psychohistory, your favorite pet." Cleon commented dryly.
"He is a sensible man, a scientist dedicated to a cause that is in agreement with my purpose." The Minister explained, this time with a touch of urgency and appeal in his tone. "Not to mention it was he who helped us effectively solve this last crisis, and I am certain his former action against Joranum will gain him his share of popularity. In the difficult times to come, he is the most suitable replacement." He said and paused to observe any effect his speech might have left on his Emperor. And when no verbal answer came, he spoke once more. "And owing to his human nature, he is likely to ruin you much less than I did."
"Nicely put." Muttered the Emperor, sounding only half-convinced. "And yet… When is it you plan to leave? I have so many questions now!"
"We still have a few days left, Sire."
"A few is not enough," Cleon shook his head defiantly. "Not nearly enough to get to finally learn about the person closest to a friend I've ever had."
Demerzel considered it for a moment. "It isn't too long ago when you said I ruined you, Sire."
"And I insist upon that statement!" The Emperor's hand suddenly hit the table desk. "Why, it's always people closest to you that ruin you the most. My dearest wife and son, for instance. They are my closest family, and yet they destroy me, both in their own way. And I still care about them. Haven't you learned this fact about humans?"
"I've lived long enough to learn, yet I fear that my knowledge in this area isn't quite complete."
"Apparently." Said Cleon, and then remained quiet, perhaps not knowing what else to say, or more accurately, where to begin.
"Sire?" Demerzel spoke first.
"Yes?"
"Since when have you regarded me as a person closest to a friend?"
"Since when, I don't know." The Emperor shrugged. "To be absolutely honest now… Whenever I tried to analyze you and decipher your motives, the thing that intrigued me the most was that all you had ever done was always so strictly and solely in favor of the Empire and the people. It was so purely selfless I just could not understand. And I might have moaned and sulk, but I have never really held anything against you, and in the end you have always made me agree with what turned out to be the best. See? You have always been my aid, faithful and loyal, who never expected anything in return. And to me, this fits perfectly to the description of a friend."
"Thank you, Sire."
"But now… Now you're leaving us. I may be the Emperor, yet the essence of my position is being a symbol of integrity. But it is you who runs the Empire. How can you just abandon it like that?"
"I assure you I'm not."
"And how can you abandon me?" Cleon objected in an offended tone. "After all this time… I'm… I'm at the loss of words… I don't know what to do!"
"Let Hari Seldon guide you." The Minister proposed, and as he watched the Emperor, the appeal in his clear blue eyes was getting heavier and heavier for Cleon to bear.
"Sire, I need to excuse myself now." The Minister spoke quietly then.
"Of course you have to." Cleon replied, disappointed, and looked the other way. "Well then, go." He said, waving his hand negligently in dismissal.
"Thank you Sire." Demerzel rose up, bowed deeply, turned and walked away in swift, nearly soundless movements. However, at the door he stopped and turned back. "Sire, I forgot to mention one thing. In order to fulfill my purpose, I could not have wished for a better Emperor to serve than you."
Cleon looked up at the statement, but found only an empty doorway. And so he watched the door slide shut silently and then allowed himself the comfort of lowering his head wearily, just before the servants that started to file in through the side entrance could see him.
ooOOOoo
AN: My first Foundation fanfic ever. Quite difficult to tackle but certainly worth it!
And please forgive me any possible errors in English or weird phrasing. I try but I'm not a native speaker.