Whereas Stone has no particular attachment to any place besides the colony tree, and he's never going to see that again. It's the people he's here to protect, and he's always done that, his entire long life, whether he knew them and loved them personally or not.

So Stone bares his teeth at Ashford, more distractedly than with any real feeling. But he does lever himself to his feet, bracing on the back of the pew. "I got to bite a World Eater," he says, sounding kind of querulously proud. "Nobody else can say that." Sorry, Ashford, your buddy isn't exactly human. His value system is maybe a tiny bit wonky.