“He had been beaten far past any thought of vengeance. He saw his beating as a long thread that led back from the immediate present, from this room almost to his birth.”

Cochran, lying in bed and recuperating, is ruminating on his beating. It seems to go beyond vengeance and almost be predestined. He is unable to avoid the conclusion that he is responsible for where he finds himself now.

“He was a hard man to beat now; he was on his way. Somebody had stolen his soul and he meant to have it back.”

Cochran feels that Miryea is a part of him that has been stolen. Very subtly, Harrison illustrates how Cochran and Tibey both see Miryea as a possession. Losing her, though truly and deeply felt, is also seen as a personal insult by the other man, requiring vengeance. In addition, this quote highlights how someone fixed on and passionate about a goal can become unstoppable in their conviction.

“He had been at the end of his tether for two years in a time when the meaning of tether had long been forgotten.”

In this flashback to the day leading up to his beating, Cochran is in the shower, reflecting on his life’s purposelessness. After leaving the military, where his days were regimented and controlled, he lived day to day, competing in tennis tournaments and partying too hard. He rode that dangerous edge for two years and finally slipped over it.