Fool; it however ends with Nighteyes' collapse, a first sign in the book of the wolf's aging body. Fitz heals him with the Skill, bringing the wolf back from the brink of death, and nearly dies himself, but is saved by the Fool. He is also visited by Chade, who requests his help training prince Dutiful in the Skill; Fitz however refuses, preferring the quietness of life away from the crown. Fitz eventually returns to Buck at the behest of his son Hap, who wishes to apprentice in the town. He becomes unwittingly embroiled in a quest to find the prince, who has disappeared, and tracks him to a distant estate filled with strange hunting cats. Fitz eventually realizes that the prince is Witted and bonded to a cat; he further discovers that while the animal has the body of a cat, it is controlled by its previous Wit-partner, who moved to the cat's body in violation of its desires. The prince's capture was engineered by a group of Witted called the Piebald, who seek to overthrow the Farseer throne by force. Fitz, the Fool and Nighteyes stand against the Piebald, but suffer injuries; Fitz breaks away with the prince using a series of Skill-pillars and defeats his captors. On a wintry night, Fitz shares a Wit-dream with Nighteyes where the wolf bounds away alone to hunt in the snow; awakening, he finds that Nighteyes has passed away. Distraught, he returns to Buck. The Golden Fool Fitz's evolving relationships with Dutiful and the Fool form a prominent plot thread of The Golden Fool. Dutiful regards Fitz as a father figure, even displaying jealousy on learning of Hap, his foster son; this catches Fitz unawares, and he agrees to return to Buck and teach Dutiful the Skill. In the castle he meets Thick, a servant who is strong in the Skill, and from whom Fitz learns the location of the remaining Piebald. He encounters and kills them in the city, but is grievously injured and arrested; a group led by Chade smuggle him to the palace and attempt a Skill healing on him. Fitz lies in a coma, but eventually awakens, to find that Dutiful has now learnt his true identity. Fitz is brought almost to a breaking point on hearing what he terms a terrible secret spoken out loud; a secret he kept masked for more than a decade. Recovering,