V. This Way Out

“The way out is thru the door. Why is it that no one will use 

  this method?”           = Confucius

Back at the dining hall, the meal had ended, and the King now sat inside a separate room the monks had designated as his meeting room.

So soon after his arrival, the small table in front of him already contained a small stack of documents for him to review.  Even while travelling, the requests continued to pour in.

The soldier outside the door announced, “Your Majesty, the monks you requested to meet with you are here.” The doors opened. Two monks entered the room and bowed. 

The first monk was older and held a cloth wrapped book in his arms.  The second was young. He looked nervous and eager to start. He carried two scrolls in his hands.

The older monk approached the King first, “My name is Leom.” Then, gesturing to the young monk next to him he added, “This is Gyeo.”

The King addressed them, “The Abbot tells me you have made some progress deciphering the book.” He gestured for the monks to approach.

Leom answered, “We have, your Majesty. It has been very slow progress, since we have had nothing to use as reference for deciphering the symbols, but we believe the repetition of those symbols and clues left in the book might have given us enough information to piece together a basic understanding.”

Leom turned and looked at Gyoe. Both stood quiet for a moment.

“How did you manage to make sense of the characters?” The King asked.

Gyoe approached the King, with eagerness. He opened the book, pointing to one of the pages. “The symbols in this page are different from the rest.” He looked up and added, “They were our first clue and have helped build a key from which to start unlocking its mysteries.”

With building excitement in his voice, “We believe they represent a specific order value.”

The King looked at Gyoe confused.

Leom, stepped in, reading from the book while pointing to the page, “8, 9, 10, 13, ...” 

With a satisfied smile on his face he added, “We believe the page refers to the Royal Prince’s birth order Your Majesty.”

Gyoe, started to read slowly, trying to make sense of the words and pointing to the page where the symbols were. “8^th Prince, 9^th Prince, 10^th Prince, 13^th Prince…”

“This helped us find the symbols for ‘Prince’.” The young monk stopped for a minute in deep concentration.

Then, as if a light had turned on suddenly for him, he continued, “Also, there is a picture and writing on another page. We believe it is a picture of the Royal baths.”

His fingers quickly located the picture, with the familiarity of someone who had spent many hours with the book. “There are more symbols next to it…. We believe it is a reference to the Daminwon.”  

“We still need to work on deciphering many parts, but we believe we have the meaning of some of the text on this page” and then he added as an afterthought, “The book seems to be the writing or recordings of someone travelling to a new place.”

Finishing, Gyoe’s eyes shined with pride in the work they had completed, “We have also brought with us in these scrolls other parts of the book we have deciphered, Your Majesty.”

 “What do they say?” The King asked.

 Gyoe opened the first scroll.

 “This is the first part of the page.” and read,

 I travel…  Goryeo…. water…. Damiwon….  Years.

I am here.

I am Hae Jin…

Gyoe, stopped and looked up from his reading.

The King stayed quiet, deep in his thoughts for a moment.

Then addressed them, “Leom. Gyoe. You will continue to work on the rest of the book?”

Both monks nodded, and Leom added, “Of course, your Majesty. With your permission.”

“Then I will be speaking to the Abbot.”

“You will be residing at the Royal Palace as advisers to the 

King. You will report directly to me and will not share any of 

this information with anyone else.”

“Leave the book and your findings here with me tonight. You may continue working on it tomorrow.”

“Prepare to leave at the end of the festival.”

Both monks stood for a moment in stunned silence, “Yes, your 

Majesty.” They said together. They bowed to the King before exiting.

Once alone, The King continued reading the scrolls and the translation the monks had completed for the rest of the pages.

Memories came back to him, of all the times the Daminwon had been the setting of intrigue, inside the palace. Beginning with Hae Soo’s first appearance at the Prince’s bath to King Mu’s death.  

A memory rushed at him vividly. It was of Hae Soo and him 

walking the palace grounds to stand by the lake.

He had said to Hae Soo,

“The Late King Taejo’s last words to me were that life was fleeting. 

That it is short and all in vain…”

“But I think that he was wrong.”

“You and I are together like this. So how could it be in vain?”

Hae Soo had stood quietly by that lake contemplating in that still manner that worried him and made him feel like she could disappear at any moment.

He asked her,

“What are you afraid of?”

“What are you hiding?”

She shared how anxious the palace made her feel.

Then, her demeanor quickly changed. Happiness filled her eyes.  

Her voice was full of longing when she told him,

“If only we had met in another world,”

“At another time…”

“I was thinking how great that would be.”

“If that could be, I wouldn’t fear anything.”

“I could truly and freely love you all I wanted.”

The memory faded.

The King’s hand rested on the translated words in the book.

For a minute frustration overtook him.

What had Hae Soo been afraid of?

He felt as if he could reach the answers that eluded him.

He extended his hand as if he could grasp the answers from thin air. If only the mist would lift and make them clear.

He remembered how this book had been brought to him by Queen 

Hwangbo in the early days of his reign.

She had set spies on Hae Soo and taken the book from her room at the Damiwon.

The Queen believed this finding would win favor with the King and cast suspicion on Hae Soo. That it would allow her daughter to be favored as his new Queen and make Hae Soo seem an unsuitable choice.

This book now represented the key to Hae Soo’s thoughts and perhaps to the one thing she kept hiding and always seemed afraid of.

He reached into the chest and set her last painting of him, next to the book.

By painting their portraits onto rocks, she had captured the memory of him and the princes.

The passage of years had allowed him to understand the longing to 

remember every detail in a loved face and made him realize he had no art, no painted image of her to help him remember the outline of her face.

As many paintings as the 13^th Prince had drawn, did any have Hae Soo in them?

Even her handwriting resembled his own.

Why had he not realized sooner her handwriting had changed?

He reached inside the chest.  Paper after paper spread on his table.

The poem repeated in each page, like a prayer. 

She had copied the poem until her handwriting bled its own identity and transformed into his. The similarity of Hae Soo’s handwriting to the King’s had sealed the ending for them. He had not been there with her at the end.

Despite everything, she had held onto hope.

Those words he had written to her then,

Now became his prayer,

When the water has run dry.

Sit and watch the rising cloud  *(1)

 The King opened the scroll,  tracing the symbols with his finger,

 I travel…  Goryeo…. water…. Damiwon….  Years.

 I am here.

 He stopped and spoke his thoughts out loud.

“I need to find the door to you….

Help me, Hae Soo.”