Having returned to his cabin, S starts to document his experience in the city of B– with a warped fishhook. What is written down differs dramatically from what S intends to write. While S intends to chronicle his experience in a rather plain language, the written words are embellished with exclamations and strong emotions (“rage”, “damned”, for example). The paragraph ends in a French sentence “Le repos est la mort,” which is translated as “Rest is death.”

The chapter is titled “Obsidian Island.” In her footnote, FXC comments that “the emphasis on death in this chapter is noteworthy” and that the word “obsidian” shares the same etymological root as “obituary.” She then uses the “ob”-prefix adjectives, “obtuse” and “obstreperous”, to criticize the “critics and book-buying public” for insulting Straka’s The Winged Shoes of Emydio Alves. FXC also comments that S is “concerned with his mortality, perhaps even more than he is aware.”

Eric comments that FXC’s etymological connection is purely nonsense. Jen circles the words “ran” and “impenetrable” from FXC’s footnote and points out that FXC is drawing attention to the repeated “ob”. Eric indicates that the scramble of letters in the 5th footnote “draws even more attention to itself” and that the clue Jen mentions previously is possibly a misdirection. In response, Jen says that “maybe there’s more than one code here” and she is “not having any luck w/ this.” In notes made later in time, Eric remarks about the different languages in which Straka writes his book.

“Maybe he was trying to learn them because she knew them?”

writes Eric. While Eric believes that VMS does so because he is in love with FXC, Jen thinks that the various languages not only protect Straka’s identity, but also help FXC identify Straka from other writers.

The page also contains a drawing–most likely by Jen since it is in blue color. The drawing is likely to have depicted the Obsidian Pendant, whic
h, according to Eric, is currently in possession by Ilsa.