The Courageous Emperor: Andreia

 Doran could easily have crossed at the bridge of Beruna, having heard of its existence from the innumerable travelers he passed going hither and thither in the Emperor's expansive empire. But he also received a haphazard but detailed history of the battle before the fords, and of the Emperor's clandestine traverse north of Beruna, amazing the unprepared foe. With an earnest desire to reenact the Emperor's conquests, admittedly in inverse, Doran, dozed along bank in bright daylight as an endless chain of people passed him by. He observed as best he could, the flow the river, the eddies, the rapids, the rocks, the current.

….

Grateful for the temperate breeze and the shining moon, Doran strolled into the swirling chaos of water and air, sound and silence. For a moment, as his feet propelled him forward, he experienced an exultation of succeeding at the unknown. Then the sandy bottom withdrew, and he floundered helplessly. He had never seen nor swam before. Without considering, he had failed to know, to comprehend his peril. Yet, any viewer of his activity would have expressed amazement, that such flailing kept his head above water.

In the moment of discovery, could Doran have returned to the bank from which he departed? Possibly, but his bravery ushered him onward, and though the thrashing of his limbs implied desperation, he'd desperately devised a systematic, if haphazard method, of not drowning, which seemed to succeed in its intent. He couldn't achieve lateral movement, but he hadn't the time to consider what would happen if he stayed in the same place. But with the passing of time (though how much he hadn't any guess) his arms expressed their exhaustion, and his legs lacked feeling. He considered an attempt to return, withdrawal did not indicate cowardice, if a repetition was undertaken. But the thundering water, the rocks, and fatigue made returning a matter of both direction and action, and he could contemplate neither.

Then a blow to the head knocked him under the water. With hands flailing he grasped a wooden beam. The bridge! Without knowing how, he had floated downriver. Unlearned as he was in swimming, he hadn't considered the effect of the current, but it had saved him from drowning.

With both arms wrapped around the pole, he contemplated his situation. Reaching out, he felt the damp wood of another support brush his palm. He knew then, he could swing from pole to pole, like a monkey swinging from branch to branch, until he stumbled onto the far shore and collapsed at the feet of a guardsman. Doran hadn't realized how close to the river the walls of the city were, nor did he care. Unlike the Emperor, his covert nighttime crossing, had been discovered.

He lay there silently, hoping he might recover his breathe and dignity before the man disturbed his repose. Through nearly closed eyes he observed the guard's surprise and suspicion, and his irritation.

“Where are your papers?” he asked Doran, who sighed with the thimbleful of air retained by his lungs.

“I don't have any papers,” he managed to reply after a pause.

“Why did you swim the river, when there's a perfectly satisfactory bridge available?” the guard asked with the hint of a laugh in his voice. “I've observed you thrash and flail for the past few minutes. If you were trying to enter the city silently, it was a foolish endeavor.”

“I wanted to be as brave as the emperor.”
This answer, offered in earnest honesty, but uttered in the middle of the night at a failed river crossing, referring to an event fifteen or twenty years past, led only to a bemused silence.

“Hm. Papers?”

“No.”

“Then you'll need to see the magistrate.”

“Will he see me now, at this late hour?” asked Doran as he was led firmly by his captor through the gigantic main gate, and down a number of comfortably illuminated streets.

“You're foreign, not part of the empire, I can see that. And anyone from outside the realm of the empire leads to the simple questions: why and where-from? The Emperor will want to know, so the magistrate will need to know.”

….

When he was eventually brought into a grand chamber he was deposited in the presence with a singular man, richly dressed.

The guards receded and he approached Doran, clapping his hands together and smiling.

“My friend, are you hungry?”

“I am sorry to disturb your eminence at such a late hour,” Doran said while kneeling on the tile floor.

“Think nothing of it. But I must insist you explain your unusual existence here, near the heart of the Empire.”

And Doran told him the story, while the magistrate nodded repeatedly, his head bobbing like a bubble on the surface of a swift river. When the tale was finished, he spoke.

“Then you and I are alike.”

“Sir?”

“We are loyal servants of the Emperor though we might be inclined to be his enemies. I led a company that defended this city against his assault. I suspected a secret crossing, and nearly repelled his advance. So I can tell you about it. His andreia expresses itself as balm which sustains men to success. When his toe touched the river Sirion he exhorted his soldiers to follow, and though he spoke in a whisper, for we were nearby, it was as each man felt he alone was receiving the praise of some fatherly deity. Though my small contingent met them with withering fire while in the deepest part of the river, they swatted the arrows aside as if they were mosquitoes.”

“But for my courage and intuition,” the magistrate continued, “I was rewarded with this position. My abject servility didn't offend of course. Now I oversee, and speak of the wisest man the world has seen. He lives in splendor, eating each grain of rice from a separate golden platter. He reclines for his afternoon nap in a room twice as large as this. And they say his whole palace has not a single light, for he fears neither darkness or the many threats it can hide. No man, as much of a man as he, could experience any distress.”

“And though I have no tangible evidence to the validity of your story, you have demonstrated a pure desire to seek wisdom from our Emperor. This virtuous and patriotic quest can not go unrewarded. I regularly receive messengers from his hand, and though an audience is difficult to arrange, a pass from me will secure your visit. He is near, and your path unhindered. So go, and his grace be with you.”

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