The bald man looks up at S with an expression “of frigid indifference, a cold and singular devotion to his purpose.” As S looks away, he can tell the man is still staring at him as he continues folding pages.

Osfour pulls S away for the second time. S shivers as a eerie chill creeps through his spine. “Don’t let that happen again,” Osfour reprimands him. As S and Osfour continue through the shop, they notice an “old wretch with a milky eye” crouching over an assortment of woven baskets. The old man pulls out a wooden whistle.

Eric reveals to Jen that he recently received a letter from Arturo, “FXC’s main guy in Marau.” Arturo “said he was sorry but they had to turn away my colleague. He made Filomela uneasy.”

“What colleague?”

“My question exactly. What if led them to her?”

Jen and Eric’s conversation clearly happens much later in Eric and Jen’s timeline of annotations but it seems as if Eric has found Filomela and he knows she is alive. “Them” is most likely referring to people against S’s books that are hunting Filomela down. It is still unclear who Arturo is or who the “colleague” is but readers should keep an eye out for his name for clues.