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Nivani, spared the coming uncertainties of the survival of her king and people by her journey with the Knights of Seris, would travel with the treasure to ensure that the chests containing each piece of the Shadow Wraith set would remain locked and safe. With enough gold to pay the Knights of Seris to use their underground network to get them out of the contested regions, they began a journey that would take years and eventually consume their lives.
'''Chapter 7: A New Mission'''
The Knights of Seris were devoted to their mantra of protecting the secrets of the dead from any forces that would seek to exploit them, and occasionally making sure that some of the dead remained dead. As such they did not simply wield weapons of battle, and more often wielded the skills of craftsmen and artisans to fulfill their ordained tasks.
It was not uncommon for a detachment of the Knights of Seris to set up camp around or near a particular location of interest to their mission and end up causing a village or entire kingdom to sprout up around them over time with the inhabitants totally unaware of why they were there or what might slumber beneath. Most people never became aware that these settlers or travelers were in fact members of the Knights of Seris as they dressed and interacted normally with everyone in their everyday lives.
A disproportionate number of detachments however, would often be lost to time and history. Rarely ever would their fates be discovered. This fact of the order was often attributed to the dangers they faced from the very secrets of the dead that they were often tasked with protecting.
Most members of the Knights of Seris were often people who have left village life looking for adventure. This often meant that they were in need of money to get by and the order furnished them with training and funds to purchase their own customized equipment, and funding for any ordained tasks. It is not known where the source of the Knights of Seris’ funding originates.
The company of Knights escorting Wynn Nivani out of Grenwiel were only told that they would be escorting artifacts from a previous age along with an accompanying religious cleric that had direct information and rituals to keep the artifacts safe. They faithfully protected the treasure even without knowing what they were protecting.
The Knights were well compensated, and knew that their task was of some importance since a King used his wealth to protect the treasure instead of himself knowing that it would never benefit him personally, and even as his kingdom fell to other pressures, his people would be protected from whatever it was they were now tasked with keeping safe.
When the Knights first met with Nivani, she led them through an abandoned church with a still working hidden entrance to an underground passage that led under King Holmeir’s castle and to a large underground cave system. They loaded up rafts with the chests they were to escort and enough provisions to get started on their way.
Barely wide enough for the rafts, the caves would be a claustrophobic nightmare for some people. Each raft had a single lit torch affixed so they could see to avoid the damp walls of the caves. It would take most of the night for them to carefully paddle their way through the watery caves following a cave map in Nivani’s possession.
At the far end a waterfall hid the cave’s exit and passing through the fairly gentle fall of the cold water into the dimly lit dawning of the new day felt like a rebirth after being inside that small, dark, and narrow cave system all night.
The captain of the knights immediately set his company to work constructing a wagon with the tools they had with them, and within a day's labor they had built a sturdy transport with storage compartments hidden by a carefully designed interior to fool the eyes of all but the most astute that something was amiss with the dimensions. Rounding up horses ended up being the real challenge, but with good fortune on their side, a farmstead within a half day walk was willing to sell them the horses they required, thus began their travels.
Twenty-two years would pass as Nivani and the Knights of Seris faithfully carried out their service to a long since fallen King and lost kingdom as they moved discreetly among villages and cities to prevent the treasure from falling into the hands of [Jenn-Kellon] or [Mol-Rehan]. Nivani would contract her eventual death from an illness that would drive her insane in a short time, and as she came to trust the order of the Knights of Seris implicitly, she turned to one of the newer members that had joined up with them named Wheatley who had often regaled her with tales of adventures that put her troubled mind at peace with her mortal affliction.
Wheatley was a true, faithful member of the Knights of Seris and when Nivani confided in him the identity of the treasure that they protected, he understood why their mission was so important to her, and knew what must be done.
''To Be Continued...''
