[Whatever momentary encouragement Carlisle receives from Pratt's approval of his plan is outweighed by his initial argument. None of the things he listed are back where he came from: not family, not friends, arguably not even honor or pride. Save for his goddess, nearly everything he has that he cherishes is here.

He cannot consider such a foul place home, he reminds himself. However, he has long faced the fact that he is utterly terrified of being sent back to Bear Den, back to an empty estate and a world that despises him as much as he despises himself. He twists his fingers.]

I suppose it only truly matters to the one person we must face each and every day: ourselves. Some people have only that, and no one else -- neither here, nor there.

[Spoken like a man who has no one waiting for him back home.]