Completing "an apprentice task" will cause you to fail "the curse of magic." Go figure. It ought to fail you for giving your first item to the apprentice, just to keep me from wasting time and effort...

[rage]Is waaaaaaay OP! Firstly, since his fragments can move through stone, there is really no way of stopping him from surrounding you. Two, those fragments seem to individually be as hard to kill as the other three bosses of that story "tier!" They hurt a lot, too. So far in this play, my Barbarian's lost one life to the sand worm queen, and six, yes, that's right, SIX (I counted!) lives to this punk.[/rage]

Skeleton mage hits Evaine for 11.71 fire damage.
Evaine hits skeleton mage for 42.56 physical damage.
Evaine killed skeleton mage!
Skeleton mage hits Evaine for 11.71 fire damage.
Skeleton mage killed Evaine!
You resurrect!

Sure, I resurrected, but what a waste of a life! I'm pretty sure enemies should stop attacking once they're dead!