Badasses, huh? His smile bloomed a little wider. He played his confidence in his own abilities closer to his chest like he did the rest of his cards, a shade subtler but no less there. "I could live with that."

As for the common thread between them, he'd agree this wasn't a conventional prison for conventional crooks. He wouldn't put it past the Artifex to throw him to the wolves, but the purpose of the town had to be more than that, or he'd have Wolfe and Santi beside him, and likely Glain, Khalila, and Dario, too. Not a bunch of strangers whose first reactions to the word 'Artifex' was usually an uncomprehending blink.

His gaze cut to Raven as her playful boasting gave way to a more frank observation. And an apt one, where he was concerned. It made him curious how she defined survival where she was from. "Is that how it was for you?" Anit had said something similar once, that she and Jess were two of a kind, a product of the same dark places; after time spent with her, Jess thought she was right, and not merely because of their shared upbringing in the book trade. She knew loss like he did, and she'd endured it without the luxury of a grave to lay flowers on as he had.

Raven, he was less sure about. He had little context to place the bits and pieces she'd revealed about her life before now.