Tardis

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Tardis
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Tardis
RealWorld

Cobweb and Ivory 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.

Summary[]

Pre-Narrative Briefing[]

Briefing B

Story[]

Avus strode forth into an alter-time realm, past six locked palaces in the city of cobweb and ivory, to the seventh which opened to his touch. Within he finds near three gross warriors of stone. At first Avus is unworried, in no prior alter-time realms has he seen living creatures. But the stone warriors move when he turns away. He flees from them, past the human breeding-engine with an unformed history inside. He flees through a park with trees of onyx, stopping at a pool filled with a substance unlike any Avus has seen before in the Spiral Politic. As he glances up from the eddies in the fluid, he notices a stone warrior inches from his face, causing him to fall into the pool.

Hallucinations flashed past Avus, he experiences other identities under the influence of the liquid - each time being chased by the stone warrior. The pet bird of a woman named Abigail, a Pilots' Coterie pilot going through a dense nebula, a primitive human listening to the storytelling of Aguta around a campfire, and a guest at an exhibition on Terra Primagenia. Miraculously recognizing the speaker he'd never seen before, a woman named Linemica, he watched as she unveiled Cernunnos - brought back using illegal time travel. His voice echoes in the minds of those attending - "On my command, your ancestors hunted us to extinction. Now you have resurrected me, I shall return to you the true form of the universe."

Avus is haunted by this occurrence, wishing he could flee - trapped through the visions from the fluid. Cernunnos comes through the pool of liquid and thanks him for showing a path forward. In a desperate attempt Avus lashes out to break the psychic link, finding fragments of another time, pushing himself to that time where Cernunnos is in a cage and impotent, where he cannot follow Avus. Cernunnos sat on his throne in the city of cobweb and ivory, confident that both Avus and himself would deal blows to the Homeworlds.

Characters[]

Worldbuilding[]

Notes[]

Continuity[]

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