A couple of confusing things in a row in the Aethiopica

I just finished Herodotus and am now reading the Aethiopica, and I'm getting some whiplash as I try to adjust from Ionic to koine. The following two things happened one after another, so I thought I would try to get a two-for-one by posting here for an explanation. This is section 1.14.

καὶ μὴν προσεπιτρίψεις γε ἡμᾶς, ἔφη ὁ Θεαγένης, εἰ τὴν κακίστην ἀτιμώρητον ἐάσεις ἐν τῷ λόγῳ Δημαινέτην. οὐκοῦν ἀκούοιτ᾽ ἄν, ἔφη ὁ Κνήμων, ἐπειδήπερ ὑμῖν οὕτω φίλον.

ἐγὼ μὲν ὡς εἶχον μετὰ τὴν κρίσιν εἰς τὸν Πειραιᾶ κατέβην, καὶ νεὼς ἀναγομένης ἐπιτυχὼν τὸν πλοῦν εἰς Αἴγιναν ἐποιούμην, ἀνεψιοὺς εἶναί μοι τῆς μητρὸς ἐνταῦθα πυνθανόμενος.

Just before the paragraph break, what is the meaning of φίλον?

After the paragraph break, there seems to be one subject pronoun and two finite verbs, with no conjunction. It seems to me that the sentence would make perfect sense without εἶχον, but I don't understand what εἶχον is doing there.

Thanks in advance/