All according to the Plan.

Most of Hari’s other mail was routine. He discarded one invitation to the annual reception for emeritus faculty members of Streeling University…and another to the emperor’s exhibition of new artworks created by “geniuses” of the Eccentric Order. One of the Fifty would attend that gathering, to measure levels of decadence shown by the empire’s artistic caste. But that was just a matter of calibrating what they already knew-that true creativity was declining to new historical lows. Hari was senior enough to refuse the honor. And he did.

Next came a reminder to pay his guild dues, as an Exalted member of the Meritocratic Order-yet another duty he’d rather neglect. But there were privileges to rank, and he had no desire to become a mere citizen again, at his age. Hari gave verbal permission for the bill to be paid.

His heart beat faster when the wall display showed a letter from the Pagamant Detective Agency. He had hired the firm years ago to search for his daughter-in-law, Manella Dubanqua, and her infant daughter Bellis. They had both vanished on a refugee ship fleeing the Santanni chaos world, the planet where Raych died. Hope briefly flared. Could they be found at last?

But no, it was a note to say the detectives were still sifting lost-ship reports and questioning travelers along the Kalgan-Siwenna corridor, where theArcadia VII had last been spotted. They would continue the inquiry…unless Hari had finally decided to give up?

His jaw clenched.No. Hari’s will established a trust fund to keep them searching after he was gone.

Of the remaining messages, two were obvious crank letters, sent by amateur mathists on far-off worlds who claimed to have independently discovered basic principles of psychohistory. Hari had ordered the mail-monitor to keep showing such missives because some were amusing.