f&f spoilers

The Fool takes care of Smithy for Fitz for MONTHS! Months!! He even helps give Smithy his name. For all that time, he was the only consistent face Smithy saw that wasn't Fitz's. He doted on that puppy on page, and even offered to care for him because he knew it would get Fitz where he wanted Fitz to be and he knew Smithy was important enough that Fitz would alter plans for him. He literally played pet sitter for Fitz's Old Blood companion lol. Petsitting for the prophecy!!

Beloved and Nighteyes cultivate the sort of deep and abiding friendship that saw the wolf sleeping on the prophet's rug and eating cakes from his hand and warming his back when he was sick and speaking to him through Fitz and Beloved's Skill bond. When Fitz is parted from Beloved and Nighteyes at the stones during FE, both of them are willing to die for each other, and try to. Beloved protects Nighteyes the entire time Fitz is away. Nighteyes recognizes the truth about Beloved that Fitz won't, that Beloved is the missing element in their triumvirate that makes them whole, and he advocates for Beloved's inclusion consistently. They're extraordinarily close friends up until the very end. Beloved burns a piece of hair for him alongside Fitz's, in observation of a tradition meant to send one's soul on with the deceased.

And then comes Motley, who is literally named by Beloved, and functions more as a wit partner to them both than to merely Fitz alone, which is astonishing considering Beloved has absolutely no such Wit magic on his own, only what residually exists from merging into one being with Fitz at the market square. Motley serves not just as Fitz's (extremely resistant) second chance at attempting a bond, but also as yet another of Fitz's bond mates who recognizes immediately and inherently the deep, deep connection Fitz and Beloved share and thus, treats him accordingly.