True as that may be, [ and she won't argue that it isn't, ] you won't find an ounce of relief in choosing your punishments for yourself. Or, worse, waiting for them to be meted out as if by karma.

[ they've talked about this before, of course. that ill-fated conversation -- where she'd tried to push him into asking the people he'd wronged what they thought of the whole mess rather than simply sitting in a puddle of his own foregone conclusions like a puppy who hasn't been housebroken. ]

It's not penance, Fitz. It's arrogance.

[ although (wordlessly) she can't blame him for mistaking the two. ]