The Tail Of Taekook

Chapter 32 - Archived Knowledge

"Have you got them all?"
"Yeah, every single one."
"Good. We've gotta get out of here, then, and fast. Somebody's gonna notice that this stuff is gone."

Taehyung nods in understanding, gathering up everything into his arms carefully, and then slowly swimming over to me, pressing his lips against my cheek shyly. "What's the plan?" he asks curiously. "We can't go out the way we came in. That wouldn't work. So how do we get out of here?"

I nod in understanding, lowering myself to the bottom of the cellar without too much effort and investigating the floor carefully. We're underneath the bottom of the ocean now, so we can't get the shrimps to save us again. It might be a case of getting some of the fish to help us break away part of the wall or something. That's the only idea that makes any sense at the moment.

Equally, there could be an escape route already existing in this room. It's old, that's true, but it's the only chance we've got to make sure we don't get discovered before we've even left.

The archives were easy enough to unlock and get into. The scale fitted perfectly into the padlock, as Krystal had instructed, and I locked it behind us just to give us a few seconds to hide in the event that somebody wants to get in here themselves. There was a small tunnel, that acted a bit like a set of stairs, bringing us down to this part of the palace. Down to the lower levels.

The room itself is large, filled with shelves upon shelves of surprisingly waterproof scrolls, on which endless lines of text explains various laws and various regulations that have been around since the first generation of mer were thrown into the ocean, over two hundred years ago. It's clearly designed for purpose, and there's a tiny shrine in the corner of it. It could be dedicated to the ocean, as there is a wave sculpture delicately carved above it.

Taehyung glances over at it now, clearly thinking hard about something, and then he makes his way over to it, handing me the scrolls before he goes so he has two hands free. "Do you think that there could be some sort of escape route behind this?" he suggests quietly. "Like the bookcase door things on land. It could be something like that."

I beam at him, nodding in agreement. "It's entirely possible," I say brightly, glancing at the door again before swimming over to a piece of script inscribed in the wall, clearly not in the Latin alphabet. When I get a little closer, I realise that it's in Hangul, and my eyes widen in surprise. I can understand this, therefore.

Well, there's nothing wrong with a little bit of reading.

Future greed will upset current grace,
Taking over our hearts with cruel self obsession,
The ocean will send us a warning,
To forget this strange possession,

A golden tail leads his amethyst on,
To the place where our minds have gone,
They will rescue us from what we've done,
Their efforts will be the salvation of the human race.

A swan song will ring out
The final deadly duet to change it all
Every person shall hear it on the wind
And the society as they know it will fall

Protect this prophecy with your life
Or the ocean will be consumed in strife
Trust in the will of the sea
To prevent this happening from coming to be

I blink several times, trying to memorise the passage of writing. Namjoon will be able to understand and decipher it, I know, and explain to Tae and I what our role really is. Our job now is to get the hell out of here. "How's that secret door coming along, baby? Have you managed to get it to work?"