After Elsa left us, it was some time before Elder Ileas announced that he was finishing my treatment. When he announced that I was now perfectly healthy, the old man sent Maxie and me on our way.
For some reason, he didn't want us to linger in his house. And before our last farewell, when I brought a whole bunch of thanks, the man was already looking pretty exhausted. But at the time I just chalked it up to old age and didn't think about the seriousness of his condition.
I learned that the healer had died a few days after we left only a few years later. At that moment, though, it seemed to me that he just wanted to get rid of the intruding guests as soon as possible.
There was a sense of nostalgia in the sad look that Elder Ileas gave me. A feeling I could never quite make out in him.
All the events that followed flew by as if in the blink of an eye.
