(urth) Shadow, Chapter X

[Matt Teel]

I've checked the archives, but don't see that this has been discussed: what do you all make of the enigmatic reference at the beginning of Shadow Chapter X (The Last Year), where Severian and Roche are leaving the House Azure and the white-haired man pulls out something that Severian assumes at first to be an icon, but then discovers is a vial shaped like a phallus?
 
Possible foreshadowing of his becoming Autarch?  I don't know.  Even if it is foreshadowing, it should make sense within the scene itself, but I can't quite figure it out.
 
Anyone want to guess?
 
Matt Teel


      
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