When he understood what was happening to him, he was for a moment aghast. So soon -- so suddenly, as it seemed.
Never ailed a day in my life, he's said to Marcelin on more than one occasion, to quell an anxious look, and for the most part this is true. He is used to the occasional passing illness; not to this, this breathtaking and inexplicable pain. It flatly frightens him.
After that comes an overwhelming relief. An answer to prayer.
Because the one fear he has never been able to banish is that Marcelin would die, someday, and leave him -- more alone than he has ever been before. All else that he has loved has left him; this one great love is his life, and to lose it would be more than he could stand.
Now -- there is very little reason to fear that.