Vriendschap

Friendship between Tiuri and Piak becomes one of the defining human bonds of Tiuri’s journey: it is tested when danger forces them apart, acknowledged as essential to the delivery mission, and renewed when Piak chooses to return. Their closeness is practical as well as affectionate. Each relies on the other, but neither treats that reliance as a claim to ownership; their final reunion gives Piak room to choose his place beside Tiuri again.

Trust Under Threat

When Tiuri decides that he and Piak must separate, Piak immediately objects and offers to go with him. Tiuri refuses because they must divide their chances, making separation a strategy for survival rather than a rejection of their friendship. Piak fears the danger ahead and begins to warn Tiuri that he may have to pass the pursuer. Tiuri cuts him off: Piak does not know that for certain, and he must go. Their disagreement shows the strain in a bond whose first impulse is to stay together, even when staying together may put both at greater risk.

Tiuri then turns their trust into an explicit obligation. He tells Piak that, if he will not leave willingly, Tiuri commands him to do so, invoking Piak’s promise to obey him in everything. Piak raises the possibility that the pursuer may be Slupor; Tiuri answers that precisely then they must separate. He insists that Piak must not think of himself, or even of Tiuri. The command sounds urgent and almost angry, but its purpose is protective: Tiuri uses the authority Piak has granted him to send his friend away from immediate danger. Their friendship here is not simple agreement. It includes fear, resistance, and the painful act of asking the other to go.

Shared Credit for the Mission

Their partnership is also evident in how Tiuri understands the delivery of the message. After the king thanks him, Tiuri feels that he has completed his task, but his thoughts turn at once to Piak. He asks the king to thank his friend too, explaining that Piak has done just as much as he has and that the king would never have heard the message without him. Tiuri’s hesitation as he tries to explain Piak’s importance does not lessen the point: he refuses to let the mission’s public recognition belong to him alone.

That insistence gives the friendship a practical consequence. Piak’s role is not merely that of a companion who shares the road; Tiuri regards him as indispensable to the success of the errand. His appeal to the king makes their shared work visible at the very moment when Tiuri himself is being thanked. The scene contrasts individual recognition with the mutual dependence that made the achievement possible: Tiuri accepts the king’s gratitude, then immediately enlarges it to include Piak.

A Farewell Shaped by Belonging

The prospect of parting carries a different difficulty. Tiuri is saddened by the thought of missing Piak and wonders whether Menaures was right that one must keep saying farewell. He has heard what Piak told Menaures: Piak would rather remain in the mountains. The next morning, Tiuri raises the subject gently, telling Piak that he knows he would prefer to stay. When Piak begins to deny that this is so, Tiuri lets him know that he heard the conversation. Piak lowers his head and admits that, although the truth makes him feel wretched, he does want to stay.

Piak’s explanation is not a withdrawal of affection. He imagines that he will long for the City of Dagonaut, though he has never seen it and doubts it can be as beautiful as Unauwen Capital. Yet in Dagonaut he expects to long for the mountains. He also doubts that he will feel at home among knights and squires, while telling Tiuri that Tiuri does belong there. His dilemma is about belonging in two places, not about whether he cares for his friend. Tiuri says calmly that he understands and is not angry that Piak has changed his mind. Piak, however, makes clear that staying will hurt too: he finds it painful not to go with Tiuri. The farewell therefore holds two attachments at once, to the friend who is leaving and to the mountain home Piak is reluctant to leave.

Return and Chosen Companionship

The separation does not settle the question of their future. When Tiuri and Piak meet again, Piak at first fails to recognize him and jumps back in surprise. Tiuri calls to him and dismounts; Piak recognizes his friend, and the two clasp hands and strike each other on the shoulder. The physical warmth of the greeting answers the earlier sadness without erasing the time apart. Piak remarks that he thought Tiuri was a knight, and Tiuri confirms that he is.

Piak explains that he has changed his mind: he would rather be Tiuri’s squire after all. Tiuri welcomes more than the formal role, naming him as friend, fellow traveler, and guide, and even imagining that Piak might one day become the king’s knight. Piak draws a boundary around that generous vision: he wants only to be Tiuri’s friend and squire, if Tiuri needs one. Tiuri answers that he wants no one else. Their exchange makes the return a choice, not a duty enforced by Tiuri’s earlier command. The bond endures because Piak can leave, reconsider, and come back on his own terms.

Their affection also survives a change in status. Piak marvels at Tiuri’s appearance and asks whether he may still call him by his familiar name. Tiuri answers playfully that he will get a cuff around the ears if he calls him anything else. The newly knighted Tiuri has changed in appearance and station, but the old ease between them remains. In that final familiarity, friendship proves more durable than rank: Piak returns not to the image of Tiuri he once traveled with, but to Tiuri himself.