Cobweb and Ivory (short story)

 was the second story in The Book of the Enemy. Written by Nate Bumber, it notably featured the return and recontextualisation of concepts from the Faction Paradox comics and Lawrence Miles' first Doctor Who novel, Christmas on a Rational Planet.

Pre-Narrative Briefing
Briefing B

Story
Avus, a young Homeworlder, explores an alter-time realm and finds himself chased by its inhabitants, the living painted warriors. Running from these statues, he accidentally falls into a pool of Praxis.

Under the drug's influence, Avus experiences a series of lucid visions in which he inhabits other identities: Abigail's pet bird on 21st century Earth, a Pilots' Coterie pilot going through a dense nebula, a human listening to Aguta's storytelling, and a guest at the unveiling of Cernunnos on Terra Primagenia (during which he bumps into Coloth). Cernunnos psychically latches onto Avus, chasing him into a vision of the Amazolian system. Cernunnos then brings Avus back to the alter-time realm, thanking him for showing the way to Cernunnos' old home. Avus tries to escape by shattering his mental link with Cernunnos, and finds a weakness via Cernunnos' future fate as a caged animal in George III's menagerie. Avus thus escapes to the Homeworld.

Back in the alter-time realm, Cernunnos and his follower Linemica discuss Avus' future, predicting that Avus has been inspired by the experience and that perhaps in the future War a Homeworld would be brought down by Avus' will.

Characters

 * Avus
 * Abigail
 * Aguta
 * Linemica
 * Cernunnos
 * Lucita Marne
 * Coloth

Continuity

 * Avus travels to an alter-time realm. (PROSE: The Book of the War, Against Nature)
 * The alter-time realm resembles a dilapidated version of the part of the pre-universe shown to Chris Cwej in PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet.
 * Faction Paradox masks are commonly worn on 21st century Earth. (PROSE: This Town Will Never Let Us Go)
 * Avus briefly becomes a posthuman-era blind pilot in control of a warship. (PROSE: The Book of the War, Newtons Sleep)
 * Representatives of the Arcadians come to Cernunnos' unveiling. (PROSE: The Book of the War)
 * Avus bumps into a cactus-skinned child on Terra Primagenia. (PROSE: War Crimes)
 * Avus briefly envisions a bestiary at the centre of a crowded city where a girl named Lucita tends to a caged mammoth. (COMIC: Political Animals, Bêtes Noires & Dark Horses, PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street)
 * Avus falls out of his House's Loomshed. (PROSE: The Book of the War, The Return of the King)
 * Cernunnos is certain that one Homeworld will be "taken down" by Avus' will. (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell)
 * The act of Avus, a future renegade, being exposed to praxis in Enemy territory and having a series of nested visions concerning the War in Heaven mirrors the events of the Rivera Manuscript, as described in PROSE: The Book of the War.