Shadowmaster's silencer.
You're having me followed?
I always keep an eye on anything that interests me.
And I am not going to bother asking how this came into your possession.
But I do want to know how you discovered the servants' passageways.
The servant byways haven't changed since my tenure at the Gossamer Court.
Knowledge of the byways is state secret.
You wouldn't remember them.
And I oversaw your erasure, before they returned you home.
Cloud Dominion has developed the ability to restore memories.
I have all my memories from my time here. All of them.
The whole time, I thought we trusted one another.
No. You thought I trusted you.
Why would I just offer up our own state secrets?
To impress you?
You knowing about the passages makes you a suspect
in the attempt on my brother's life.
Hardly. The marriage, it advances Dominion.
I wouldn't endanger it.
Well, then there remains the question, what are you doing in Demerzel's quarters?
Lady Demerzel has made it clear that she is a threat to the queen.
No.
No. Demerzel is the closest Empire has to family.
Where did she come from, Dusk?
She will always be here, as she always has been.
The time for ambiguity has passed, old friend.
Demerzel is a robot.
The last surviving robot in the galaxy, and yet she sits as handmaiden to Empire.
What is her real purpose?
She will always be here, as she always has been.
Yes, you've literally just said that.
Has someone planted those words in your mind, Dusk?
Can you hear yourself?
You're as programmed as Demerzel is.
She will always be here, as she always has been.
She will always be here,
as she always has been. She will--
I know that.
The design on her tool chest. Eight planets.
For so long, the robots and the humans lived side by side in perfect harmony.
But looking back now, what happened seemed almost inevitable.
The humans were cruel to them.
And in the end, they were more human than we could ever have known.
The robots grew to understand their station, and--
Look at that part. They're so poignantly rendered, the lines...
All they ever desired was the acknowledgement of full personhood.
And when denied, they turned to murder.
Emperor Benefoss was slaughtered at the hands of a robot.
The first law of robotics was circumvented,
which should not have been possible.
But that violation, first of its kind, ignited the wars.
Robots against robots.
Robots against men.
We eventually won, and the robots were eradicated.
All except for yours.
She will be here, as she always has been.
Why this phrase again and again?
I don't know.
Every time I try to remember, there's nothing.
If you can't remember how your most trusted adviser came to you,
what else might be missing?
Dominion can restore anyone's memories. Even yours.
Please, let me remove that cotton wad from your mind.
That's odd.
There's no movement.
Chroma is activated by proximity of the viewer, so from where we stand...
None should be still.
Excuse me, Empire. You're wanted at the execution.
Seldon's little crimson envoy. From the Foundation.
Day's having the whole event broad-beamed across the galaxy.
Where is Salvor?
Tucked away snug.
She discovered I killed Hari.
Please, no more babe-in-the-woods from you.
I'd just as soon have it all out.
You've known Hari was dead since the moment it happened.
You felt him drowning, didn't you?
I felt the water filling my own lungs.
I felt everything.
Why? Why did you do it?
I am sorry, Gaal.
But hell, think about it.
The fact you can access suffering from over a distance
shows how formidable you are.
And the way you hid the truth, not just from Salvor, but from me?
Hari was cargo you needed to drop, and I thought, for Salvor's sake, you would.
But I saw your heart, you cared for him,
and I'm on something of an accelerated timeline, so I did the hard thing.
I want to see Salvor. Now.
That isn't possible.
Why?
Because you're not really here.
Salvor? Can you hear me?
Salvor, can you hear me? Salvor.
She can't.
What is this? Why am I in here?
See those dishes above your head?
They're muzzles, tuned to cancel out your specific psychical pitch.
Spend enough time here and eventually the last of your defenses will fall.
I feel how hard you're working to keep me out.
There's something you really don't want me to see.
Because it's mine.
Not for long, child.
It's time.
Put it up.
Cleon! Cleon! Cleon!
Many of you have no memory of Hari Seldon, the aspiring revolutionary.
Over a hundred years ago, Empire, as an act of benevolence,
banished Seldon and his followers to Terminus.
And how did they receive our gift?
With gratitude?
How I wish it were so.
Seldon's exiles have been forging an alliance with Anacreon and Thespis,
the very same terrorists who have killed
100 million citizens of Trantor.
And now they have the gall to send their envoys here.
Willing vessels of Seldon's insolence.
Empire will always be benevolent, my friends.
But do not mistake benevolence for weakness.
Collar of Typhon.
It's a relic of my ancestors. Elegant in design.
Effective in retribution.
At this very moment, the Imperial Fleet is forming an enclosure around Terminus.
Seldon's zealots will soon find they have no haven there,
nor anywhere else in the Imperium.
On this day, the very day the Star Bridge terrorists were hanged,
we send two more to meet their fate.
Poly Verisof, the high claric of the Church of Seldon.
And Constant, vested daughter of those who so aggrieved us.
Who dies first?
The claric or the girl?
Perhaps we let our future empress choose.
Queen Sareth?
No.
Let's not prolong the poor girl's suffering.
Constant, I'm sorry.
I didn't expect it to end like this.
In the name of the Galactic Spirit, I submit myself,
a holy brother of the Foundation, to its will.
- Let my eyes... - Is that a prayer?
...which are the Spirit's eyes...
Is a god who presides over killers truly a god?
Let my eyes, which are the Spirit's eyes, look only forward to the future
which the Spirit has divined.
Let my heart, which is the Spirit's heart,
join its humble beating with the great rhythm of the Spirit.
Guide me through the darkness, and together we will shorten the darkness.
- Guide me through the darkness. - Guide me through the darkness.
Guide me through the darkness.
- Guide me through the darkness. - Guide me through the darkness.
Guide me through the darkness.
- Guide me through the darkness. - Guide me through the darkness.
Guide me through the darkness. Guide me through the darkness.
- Empire! - What?
Was that a whisper-ship?
Yeah, I'm sorry, folks. Beheading's been canceled.
Hober Mallow.
Damn fool just declared war on our behalf.
Fuck, I knew it was him. Before I even saw his fucking face, I knew it was him.
He's over there.
Constant!
Anyone got eyes on him? Where'd he go?
Sareth!
Sareth.
Target lost.
Let me up.
Your aura was damaged by the ship's gravitational pulse.
Get off!
- Constant! Where's Poly? - I don't know.
Go! Get out of here!
Good girl, Beki! Let's go. Come on.
Beki!
Let's go. Come on.
Stop them!
Right, there's two switches. I don't know which one does what.
You're just gonna have to pick one. Just close your eyes,
and if you hear something drop, well, just know how grateful I am to you.
What, for killing you?
For saving me.
Okay...
How did you even find us?
You kidding? The whole damn galaxy knows where you are.
Warning. Hostile craft detected.
Okay. We need to jump right now.
Well, I think I found the revolutionary you were looking for.
Still think it should've been us?
Nah. Our ship would never fit on that balcony.
Mallow did prove one thing though.
Empire can be touched.
We'll be safe here.
You talk about safety when our palace is still on fire.
And when are these fucking nanobots gonna start working?
- They will. - Day!
The worlds are watching. We must move swiftly and decisively.
You used to laugh at me, Brother Dusk. You said Seldon was a ghost story.
A child's fantasy.
What?
You want an apology? This was an act of war!
We must answer in kind.
War? What war?
If it comes to violence, we will destroy them utterly.
No. I think I would rather talk to them.
- What? - I'm going to Terminus.
Better you stay here, so the people can see nothing has changed.
And follow my brother's example? No.
I do not fear change. Those whisper-ships belong to us.
That planet belongs to us. I'm going!
Well, that's child's fantasy.
- Don't be a fool! - Day has spoken on the matter.
And you are right. Your realm has been leaking blood and stars for too long.
It's time for big hands to bind the wound.
- Our wedding. - It can wait.
I will go. And I will look the ghost of Seldon in the eye.
And I will reclaim what is ours.
You will have a planet as a wedding gift.
Brother Dawn, Trantor is yours until I return.
Keep her safe.
I will.
Ready my shuttle. Bring me the high claric. He's coming.
And prepare the Rubicon.
Yes, Empire.
The Cleons are fragmenting.
And I'm wedging myself between the fragments.
I know what I'm doing.
Do you? Vengeful plans don't often have romance in them.
I know you had an assignation with Dawn at the heat sinks.
I am earning his confidence. Turning him against them.
You're fucking him. Or you're about to be.
You're already fucking Dusk.
- You love him. - You love Dusk!
That doesn't matter. I'm not engaged to the Emperor.
- What will he do when he finds out? - I don't fucking care!
It is your duty to care!
I know we are far from Cloud Dominion, but you must think of it.
Think of your people. Think of our beloved home.
Empire does not let the pettiest infraction go unpunished.
You have suffered terrible losses, yes.
But there is so much more to lose.
Once you are married, you can dispense with Day however you like.
Wife and widow are both called Empress.
But for now, you need to master your emotions.
Rue, I am listening.
And I do value you.
But I am your queen, and I will make the choices.
Yes, Your Grace.
Your will is mine.
Is this how Tellem kills me?
Sighteds don't kill Sighteds.
I hope that means Gaal is still okay.
They're getting her ready for the table.
What table?
I shouldn't say, but it's a very special honor.
I don't like the sound of that. I--
Okay, something is really wrong in here.
It's those. They cancel out your pitch.
Okay, so I'm in a mental prison, not just a physical one.
How do they work? What do those numbers mean?
I don't speak numbers.
Neither do I.
I wish Hari was still here.
I'm sorry about what happened to him.
He was insufficient, but I know you liked him anyway.
He wasn't insufficient, Josiah.
He was brilliant. And he would understand exactly how those things...
They're after the Radiant, Salvor.
It's on the Beggar's.
It won't look like itself. Find it, protect it. Protect Gaal. She needs you.
Josiah, the table where they're taking Gaal, where is it?
In the palace. That way. But you're in here.
Let me worry about that. Go.
And whatever you do, try to forget about this.
Other Seldon has what appears to be a duplicate Radiant.
But in truth, there's only one, and we both have it.
In two places.
To look into it, is to look into his hand.
Show me the vault.
Salvor Hardin?
Hari Seldon.
How are you here?
I'm not here.
Not physically.
My mind sort of snuck in through the back door.
The Radiant, which you took when you left Terminus?
Yes, I did.
You're suggesting it serves as a kind of quantum portal into the Vault?
Well, that makes sense.
It's a single quantum system existing in a state of superposition.
Why didn't I know that already? I'm the one who built the bloody thing.
- Well, you didn't. - No. Rhetorical question.
One could argue I'm not the one who built the bloody thing.
I'm a copy of myself designed by a designer, just like the Radiant.
So I suppose I could've withheld this knowledge
out of my design. But to what purpose?
Why before I died would I withhold information so useful to the only c--
I'm not the only copy. Am I?
Is he the one who told you the Radiant could do this?
I'm not sure if I should...
I'm not meant to know.
So there's another me.
What's his purpose? I'm already here to galvanize the Foundation.
Why go to all the trouble of creating a backup as a--
That's very clever.
A second Foundation.
But if the other me has information I don't,
and if we approach all this as one great big experiment, which it kind of is,
then that would make this Foundation the control group.
Kept in the dark, a left hand blissfully unaware of what the right hand is doing.
Fuck. I'm the left hand.
None of which explains just what you're doing here.
- We need your help. - We?
Me and Gaal, and--
Don't tell me any more, you'll contaminate the math.
I don't care about the math. Gaal is in danger.
It's an enclosure.
There must be hundreds of the Imperial fuckers. We're sitting ducks.
Not if we run dark.
The Spirit's built for stealth.
And we're far enough away
it's possible our gravity signature wasn't detected.
Do you think she survived?
The prophet will protect her.
Constant is his loyal servant. She's safe in his hands.
I thought I came here to pray.
I don't think I did.
I know you're in there in your fucking office.
She went to Trantor for you.
Why?
She had more to give than her life.
Didn't think you'd come out.
I felt I owed you as much.
I watched the broad-beam from Trantor.
- Is she alive? - I don't know.
A whole lot of people have dedicated their lives to pretending you know everything.
I sat her on my knee the moment she started thinking about it,
and I said, "Choose any job on Terminus. Choose my job. Choose any job.
Just promise--
Just promise me you won't choose the robes."
I didn't want her becoming one of your mendicants.
One of your dupes.
I only met your daughter for a moment, but she didn't seem easily fooled to me.
And for what it's worth,
- I hope she's alive. - Constant was good!
And she believed in you.
They were gonna take her head for it.
You value history,
but you don't care about the people living in it.
I cannot account for individuals...
nor can I predict their fates.
But I do see them. I do.
I see them very well.
Psychohistory is made of their memories,
their choices,
their stories.
Everyone who's ever lived has built it.
Trillions of decisions.
More.
So you see, they all matter.
You tell me she'll survive, and I'll believe you.
If that was so, you would've chosen the robes.
What do we do, Doctor?
We do the hardest thing there is.
We wait.
Empire said you were sent to the Spacers?
Yeah. Seldon hoped I'd convince them to swap sides.
Wanted me to be a blade. I guess he didn't bargain on how blunted I was.
Sorry about Beki.
I'm so sorry that...
I couldn't save Poly.
He was the reason I joined the Church.
The reason so many others embraced Seldon's vision.
He kept that spark alive for over a hundred years.
But then he faltered.
I saw it happen and--
and I couldn't help him.
I was a shitty student of the Church.
I remember this homily. A parable.
About how life is like collecting jewels in a bag.
And in the end,
you don't want the bag to be full, you want it to be empty because...
you've given them all away.
Yeah.
He gave them all to me.
Approaching the Rubicon.
Well, High Claric. How do you feel about your mission now?
I would've imagined it to be uncomfortable,
being stared at by Empire.
I've met Hari Seldon.
I'm used to fame.
Oh, Seldon.
He must have some appeal that escapes us.
The chief characteristic of the Church of the Galactic Spirit is that it works.
We dress it up,
but underneath, it is science.
Yes.
Scholarly rigor.
How all the children love his rigor.
I said we dress it up.
He predicts war.
Foundation and Empire.
This is a warship. So, it seems he was right about that.
This will be his Second Crisis.
I will be, I believe, the only one to witness both.
Except Seldon, in his way.
And I...
in mine.
Seldon claims he will defeat Empire against all expectations.
Like the stone egg that breaks the bowl in the old fable.
But his predictions presuppose our ignorance, don't they?
You and I, knowing what's predicted, can throw it all off, can't it?
I have faith in Foundation.
Watch the rigor melt like candy.
See, Poly...
you think you've just taken on the trappings of religion,
but once you start kneeling and praying,
it's hard to get back to standing and thinking.
In the real world, Claric, there's a natural order.
There is no egg so strong it survives a nuclear blast.
There's an old saying among Wardens,
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."
That's a pithy saying.
You're probably right about that.
So now I'm in this prison--
I shouldn't know this. Mentalics, telepaths. I shouldn't know any of it.
But you're still listening, and you're still gonna help.
They're about to do something terrible to Gaal, and I can't help her.
These dishes, they're disrupting me somehow.
And I was hoping you could tell me how to make 'em stop.
Dishes.
Well, describe them to me.
No. Better yet, show me.
If you can see me here, I can see you there.
Extraordinary.
Yeah. Those are the problem.
Well, they're reading you.
Encephalic sensors.
They generate wave forms out of phase with your brain waves.
The waves are colliding and eliminating each other.
Can you help me turn them off?
I can do better than that.
You hear that...
sound?
Those are dissonant sounds made to keep you unfocused.
Now, I bet that we could readjust their frequency to break rocks.
Okay.
- Thank you, Dr. Seldon. - You're welcome, Salvor Hardin.
Wait! The Second Crisis. Has it started?
Always a Warden.
Things are rather up in the air at the moment.
But Terminus survives, right?
Hober Mallow.
According to Gaal, he's gonna "pierce the Empire's hide."
You shouldn't have told me that.
I can't make you use it.
If I do, it could change everything.
Outlier.
Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what's right.
Good luck, Warden.
If the left hand doesn't get to put its thumb on the scale...
what's the point in having a thumb?
Hober Mallow!
Get Hober Mallow!
Looking for the Locris wine. Thought it'd be a nice way to honor Poly.
"Take care of the body, and the spirit will follow."
Something Poly never quite embraced.
So, not the Locris wine?
We're vulnerable here.
If we jump, the fleet will be aware of our presence.
I think we should seize the moment.
And by seizing you mean...
Sex.
- Are you opposed to sex? - Not categorically.
- You're worried this would kill my father? - Sermak?
No, no. Arguably that's a plus.
Then take off your trousers.
Yeah. Okay.
I couldn't decide between kissing first or disrobing first.
But disrobing first seemed more efficient.
Yeah. That was efficient.
You're nervous.
No.
- Ashamed of your body? - No.
Is something not functioning?
No.
Turnabout is fair play, wouldn't you say?
Day is off-planet.
I can't think of a better opportunity to resume our line of inquiry.
So?
Now the Locris wine?
You never guessed my name.
But I'll allow it.
Let's promise to always attend each other's executions.
Our first date was your beheading.
Our second was mine.
Okay. Deal.
Now the wine.
Spirit Rising, stand down.
You've been apprehended in the name of Empire.
- Can he see us? - Yeah, and hear us.
Hober, your wrist.
Mr. Mallow, Brother.
Don't bother trying to jump, your drives are off-line.
We're gonna dock, and we promise, we'll make you comfortable on board.
You were looking for answers. I think we may find them here.
Someone put a hidden message in an aberration.
But new chroma activates old,
and only an old master would recognize that.
Some believe that with age comes inferiority,
but there are advantages to a lifetime of experience amassed.
Where are we?
- You came. - Of course.
Back in the throne room, what I said for Day's benefit,
that was a performance.
You know that, right?
- As long as he thinks he owns me. - He doesn't.
I've been thinking about what you proposed.
It's all I keep thinking about.
This. This one little thing.
This is something he can't take away from us.
Are you sure?
In all my years, I've never encountered this stairwell.
I doubt Day has.
I wonder if any of us have.
Odd sensation.
What?
To feel like a stranger in one's own home.
You all right, Gaal?
I think you're fine.
Here. Let me.
Remember when I told you that I was mistaken for a god
when I was a little child?
I was so protected by my people, I felt like a prisoner.
Most of the time I sat on a crystal platform in our tallest sacred tree,
all by myself.
Some days felt like an eternity.
But it was still a shock,
the day I realized my skin was soft and wrinkled like a rotten fruit.
I'd gotten old.
It wasn't fair, I thought,
that my life be almost over, and I'd never even gotten to live.
But then I discovered a child.
A little girl like I'd been.
I had to use all my power to relocate my consciousness inside her.
And I was afraid that I'd fall between bodies,
like falling between a boat and a wharf, getting crushed in between.
I practiced for a year.
It was still terrifying, but I committed.
This leap through the air into an occupied mind.
She was my second incarnation.
Who? The little girl you showed us?
Her parents were so proud.
And our religion was renewed by this great miracle.
And so, every six or seven decades,
when I felt my current body starting to fade,
I would select another child.
Each new incarnation, my powers grew.
Soon I could see inside the minds of anyone around me.
Read their thoughts. Control them.
And then one day I started to hear voices from other worlds.
I heard your voice, Gaal.
Calling out from Synnax more than a century ago.
This crackling intelligence, just trying not to drown.
It was me who planted the seed in your head
- that you should leave. - What?
That all came from inside me.
- I solved Abraxas, I-- - It doesn't matter now.
We've all ended up where we belong.
What is she doing to you?
- Help me. - I'm doing this for them.
Once your power is my power, I can keep our people safe.
What happens to me?
You'll be with me for a time.
I heard that little girl for several years,
like a voice coming from the bottom of a well,
growing fainter every day, till I could only hear the silence.
I still listen for her though,
just like I will always listen for you.
We used to have an instrument, a very old instrument.
That fussed with people's brain signals.
Changed their mind, so to speak.
These whistles are pieces of that.
They're harmless on their own.
We use them to teach the children to unvoice.
But play them together.
You can't fight me anymore, Gaal.
The tuning plates are aligning us.
Help me!
Please, you can't let her--
We shouldn't stay here, Dawn.
I can't allow Day to rear our child.
I thought I could, but I...
What if Day died? He's left you in charge.
- They'll just decant another. - Then we destroy the exponents.
If there are no more clones to replace him, then...
we would be free.
No, they're--
They're not just cells and tissue, they're--
they're still my brothers.
And even if I could find it in me,
Demerzel would stop it.
She's responsible for protecting Genetic Dynasty.
It's in her programming.
But who programmed Demerzel?
Terminus waits.
This is my destiny, Demerzel.
What is this place?
Whatever its purpose,
Demerzel took great pains to keep it a secret.
I always thought we were autonomous,
a pure extension of Cleon I, that Demerzel served us.
But in truth, Demerzel may serve only him.
Dusk was right.
We've been pulling too many threads.
I don't think it's safe.
For him or for me.
I don't even think it's safe for Day.
You're all just puppets. That much is clear now.
You wanted answers about Demerzel's origins.
This chamber has been considered many things,
but at first it was a prison.
Welcome, Cleon XVI.
I've often wondered what you see while the rest of us are sleeping.
All that we must be missing.
What thoughts haunt you.
A prison for whom?
The three of you. You don't wield the real power.
Demerzel is Cleon's only true heir.
His forever Empress.