Ok, so I find a sage in a region, and get him to improve one item, then he goes to another region. After about a day, during which I was investigating, I find out where he has gone and travel there.
I arrive, but have too much fatigue to do anything. So, half a day after he arrives, he leaves, before I can even do anything. Now I have to wait approx another day until he arrives somewhere else. And this is not the first time that It had happened.
Very much hide and seek. Do sages routinely run around so much? I'm guessing there might have been an adventurer who forced him to run away, although they aren't in the region right now...