The Ivory Cat

The Egyptian gods (if they exist) are the many which is the One: innumerable aspects of a single unity living in a time-space in which all time is now and all space is here, and everything can be true at once.

Normally the gods don't meddle in human affairs, asking only that Cosmic Order be preserved. But now and then-

In a moment that was all moments, a simultaneity that in human terms would one day be known as circa 1333 BC, Bastet the cat-headed goddess (if she existed) looked with interest upon Pharaoh Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti and their children, upon a fishing boat bearing a numinous ivory cat, a fearful slave in Bubastis, an arrogant and unhappy princess in Mitanni, some venomous and ambitious plotters, a naive idealist or three, and a scatter of other human and feline players. She smiled a bland cosmic smile-

-and meddled.