The battle of the E-Rantel cemetary was a hard fought one. Gazef and his warrior band had slain a skeletal dragon, and killed hundereds of undead within the crypts. Most dangerous of all of these were the cultists themselves, who called on magic to damage the troops and boost the abilities of their undead. Philip had proven himself a able bodied ally, summoning a few lesser elementals and for the most part healing those injured preventing truly catastrophic losses. This served to make Gazef more inclined to the man.

The man who was now standing over the corpse of the Count Faringheim and the Necromancer Kaijit. He looked down at them at his feet. The Count's pressence here had been unexpected, but at least no one was around to say Philip was guilty of Necromancy himself.
Philip reached down and picked up the dark growing orb, his own heart beating immensely. Not from fear, but from joy. A smile crossed his face as he looked into the orb. It seemed as deep as the sea and dark as the night.

"TRAITOR." The jewel whispered in his head. He had known before hand that the item was sentient, and so he had prepared for this. "We will accomplish so much more together." he said aloud. To the orb, the message and the smile were clear. The impression Philip left on the orb was that he was a man who had far more in mind than Kaijit. To the warrior captain behind him, his words meant that he valued him, and they would go on to serve the Kingdom proudly. And that made the foolish captain smile.
"Yes. We saved the Kingdom today." Gazef said in response. Philip jumped in his own skin, completely forgetting he had spoken. "Yes. That is the case." He said turning around.

Gazef's eye was drawn to the magical artifact Philip was now holding. He raised an eye brow. Philip followed his gaze. *SHIT.* He thought. "I will be taking this as my reward for helping here, and on the plains. If there are no objections from you or his majesty."
Philip declared.

Gazef was very curious. Not to the point of suspicion, but magic items were valued. Was this truly worth so much? "What does it do?" he asked.

"I'm not entirely certain myself." Philip answered truthfully. "However, I would like to research it in my domain."

*It was only to be expected from a scholar like the Baron Montserrat.* Gazef thought as he nodded in acceptance.

And what a horrible mistake that was, to not cut down Philip Montserrat then and there.