A massive explosion had reduced a barbarian witch doctor from The Tortured Land to ash, taking a Black Orc High Warlord with him in the process.
The High Warlord was one thing. Huo Keduo had at least dozens of them under his command, so losing one was hardly crippling. But a barbarian witch doctor with truly formidable spellcasting power was another matter entirely.
Witch doctors held an extremely lofty status in The Tortured Land. Though this one had been cunning, greedy, and thoroughly difficult to deal with, he had undeniably possessed real skill. In The Tortured Land, witch doctors with such terrifying spellcasting abilities were exceedingly rare. Huo Keduo had only managed to hire this one after agreeing to countless conditions demanded by those barbarians from The Tortured Land.
Yet he had been blown to death in such a humiliating way!
Who knew whether that counted as misfortune never coming alone?
Meanwhile, things were much more cheerful on the other side. After Solam removed Sokya's curse, he had not expected to resolve Mavis and Jacqueline's curses at the same time.
"You child, since you'd already escaped back then, why didn't you come straight back to me? You had me worried sick for quite a while." Once the excitement of their reunion had passed, Mavis grabbed Solam and began complaining.
Though Mavis and Solam shared no blood relation, she had always treated him as if he were her own child. And just like any mother, she was constantly worried whenever her child left her side.
She feared Solam might be bullied outside, or fail to eat properly, or even fall in with bad company. In short, when a child traveled far from home, a mother worried. Anything bad that might happen to her child would cross a mother's mind and make