Piak Says Farewell, Then Catches Up with Tiuri turns an apparent parting into a test of what friendship and belonging require. Piak first chooses the mountains over the journey he had asked to join; Tiuri accepts that choice without reproach. Only after leaving does Piak discover that missing his friend outweighs his fear of missing the mountains, and he follows Tiuri to the City of Dagonaut. Their reunion makes the departure consequential without making it final: Piak returns not as a reluctant would-be knight, but as Tiuri’s friend and squire.

The Choice in the Mountains

Back at Menaures’s mountain refuge, Tiuri recounts their journey while Piak says little. Later, as the two young men make beds on the floor from straw and blankets, Piak asks Menaures whether he has been missed. Menaures answers warmly that he has. The question opens the conflict Piak has not yet managed to tell Tiuri directly: Tiuri had said that Piak would accompany him to King Dagonaut, but Piak is now unsure whether he can leave the mountains.

Piak had wanted to become a squire and had asked to go with Tiuri. But returning to the mountains has made him feel that he belongs there. He cannot be certain that this feeling is permanent. He has now seen something of the world below, and he imagines that he may long for it if he stays; if he goes, he expects to long for the mountains instead. His hesitation is therefore not simple rejection of Tiuri or of the life they had discussed. It is a conflict between attachments, with no choice that promises freedom from regret.

Menaures does not make the decision for him. He asks plainly whether Piak would rather remain in the mountains, and Piak admits that he would. What weighs on him is the prospect that Tiuri will think he has broken faith or abandoned him. Menaures answers that there will always be something left behind, whether Piak goes or stays, and that Tiuri should be told the truth. He is entitled to choose his place, Menaures says in effect, and Tiuri will not blame him for doing so.

A Farewell Without Reproach

Tiuri hears the conversation while lying awake. He is saddened by the prospect of losing his companion, but resolves to speak to him rather than make Piak carry the decision alone. The next morning he names what Piak has been struggling to say: he knows Piak would rather stay. When Piak tries to deny it, Tiuri continues, promising that whether Piak comes or not, they will remain just as good friends. He contrasts their different directions: Piak belongs in the mountains, while he belongs in the land of King Dagonaut.

Piak reminds him that he had intended to become his squire. Tiuri acknowledges that this was what Piak wanted, but tells him he is not angry if he has changed his mind. He also admits that he overheard Piak speaking with Menaures. That admission releases Piak from having to disguise his choice: he says plainly that he would rather stay, though he finds it painful to say so.

The pain is double-sided. Piak expects to miss the City of Dagonaut, which he has never seen, and guesses that it cannot be as beautiful as the City of Unauwen. At the same time, he expects to miss the mountains if he leaves. He doubts that he would feel at home among knights and squires, the world that seems to suit Tiuri. Their farewell is thus neither a quarrel nor a judgment about which life is better. Tiuri accepts that they may have different homes; Piak grieves that accepting this does not make the separation easy.

Distance Makes the Choice Clear

After their conversation, Piak leaves toward the mountains. Tiuri reaches no settled understanding of what the departure will mean beyond the fact that he will miss his friend. The decisive change happens for Piak in motion. He later explains that as he climbed back toward Menaures, each step seemed to widen the distance between himself and Tiuri. Once he was back among the ordinary tasks and surroundings of the mountains, he knew he regretted leaving his friend behind.

Piak tells Menaures what he has realized. Menaures laughs a little and tells him to hurry after his friend. His earlier counsel had not removed the uncertainty by deciding Piak’s life for him; it had allowed Piak to make the choice himself. Only after the farewell does Piak know that he wants to be with Tiuri, even though he will miss the mountains. In this way, leaving supplies the certainty that staying had not: the separation tests the attachment instead of ending it.

Piak runs down toward Tiuri’s destination. After a few days he reaches Castle Mistrinaut, remembers Tiuri’s account of the place, and asks whether anyone there knows where Tiuri has gone. The people at the castle do know, and Piak continues his pursuit. His arrival at the City of Dagonaut comes from his own decision, made after he has experienced what staying would mean; he has not simply resumed the old plan without reflection.

Reunion at Dawn

Tiuri encounters Piak on the western road as he rides down from the hill at dawn. Piak is poorly dressed, with a sword at his side, and has not yet noticed Tiuri. Tiuri first recognizes the resemblance, then realizes that the approaching boy is his friend. The reunion follows the lonely night Tiuri has spent keeping vigil in the chapel, now with his white shield above the altar. After completing the delivery mission and keeping his promise to the knight Edwinem, Tiuri has been recognized by King Dagonaut as a knight; the boy Piak catches up with is already addressed as one.

Piak says that he has changed his mind and would rather be Tiuri’s squire. Tiuri answers expansively, naming him friend, traveling companion, and guide, and even imagining that he might one day become a king’s knight. Piak checks that enthusiasm: he wants to be Tiuri’s friend and squire, if Tiuri needs one. The distinction matters. Piak returns out of loyalty and affection, not because his earlier uncertainty has transformed into a fixed ambition to join the knightly world.

The conversation also gives the return a concrete history. Piak says he regretted the choice quickly, but needed to climb back to Menaures and resume his tasks before he could be sure. Menaures did not send him away until he had reached that certainty. Piak then ran downhill and, after reaching Castle Mistrinaut, followed the information he found there to Tiuri. What began as an honest release from obligation ends as a freely renewed companionship: the promise is no longer the only reason to travel together.

Meaning of the Parting and Return

The episode places two kinds of resolve beside one another. Tiuri’s vigil and knighting mark a public change of status: King Dagonaut recognizes the courage and fidelity Tiuri has already shown. Piak’s choice is quieter and less ceremonial. No title or formal rite settles where he belongs; instead, he must distinguish the life he thinks he ought to choose from the friend he cannot stop missing. The dawn meeting brings those separate movements together, with Tiuri newly a knight and Piak choosing the companionship he had feared losing.

Menaures’s counsel gives the parting its most durable insight: leaving either place means missing something. The story does not make that cost disappear when Piak catches up. Piak has learned that he may still long for the mountains, just as he feared; what changes is that he can accept this cost knowingly. His return confirms Tiuri’s earlier assurance that friendship need not depend on Piak becoming the person Tiuri expected. The farewell matters precisely because it gives Piak room to leave—and makes his return a choice rather than an obligation.