A small smirk. "Fair enough. It was more a turn of phrase than a threat assessment. Though I will say, a stubborn will and high tolerance for pain does get a person pretty far, through my experience."

Zechs shrugged a little. "Depends on the slight. And the tools they have available. If someone's determined, I'm sure they'll quickly have another person here killed - but there's already been a murder which has caused more cautious people to try to limit the number of arms available."

His skeptical tone, mild though it was, said more about his opinion about that half-hearted measure than his actual words.