I expected the first chapter of this book to mention the characters from the first book. And the three Malacandrian races are named. But as he walks from the Worchester railway station the narrarator focuses on one type of extraterrestrial being in particular. The eldila, angelic beings without any material bodies to be seen by humans. He goes into great detail about what these eldila are. Along the way to Ransom's place he is assaulted by negative thoughts from some unseen menace. These turn out to be our own fallen Terrestrial eldila.
But that's getting a little ahead of the story. Before Ransom makes his dramatic entrance, his guest enters the cottage to find it dark and empty. Or maybe not! There is one very special and noble guest present who would be nearly invisible if it were not so dark. The Oyarsa of Malacandra has chosen to visit Ransom's humble abode and calls out in his bloodless voice to the guest, mistaking him for Ransom. I suppose we Thulcandrans all look alike to Malacandrian eldila. The icey casket adds a creepy touch to the proceedings which follow. It makes you wonder what's in store for Ransom in a rather morbid way.
C.S. Lewis was so into the supernatural nature of the eldila that he includes a footnote about their appearance. It's an excerpt from an author named Natvilcius. I have not been able to find any information about this scholar on the internet. So I wonder if the footnote was simply a plot device invented by Lewis to suspend our disbelife. Somehow I doubt it. Unlike H.P. Lovecraft who invented whole ficticious books for his stories, Lewis would not intentionaly mislead us just for the sake of a good story. The footnote mentions that the glow of angelic and demonic beings may not be their bodies but rather their sense organs or the surface of their bodies which exist in another reality. This sounds to me like the discription of an aura, which is one of those New Age gimmics. It's amazing how pop-culture can turn a scholarly speculation into a fad.