This is Ishmael 1887. Here, the Afroasian, Austronesian, and Turkic nations are superpowers...as is the common Allah they worship.
This is the Lower Nile. The Khedivate now rules Egypt; Tewfik is khedive/viceroy. The country is a product of the Ottoman and French Empires. More recently, it's also a product of the British Empire. One day soon, the Turks will go to war with Britain and France over this country...if they haven't already.
Farther up the Nile, where Egypt becomes the Sudanese Emirates, a temple has been constructed. It seems out-of-place. The nearest city is downriver. Lucky for Cairo, though, it's not them.
At this temple, the cat thrives. Hence, the snake and scorpion both suffer. Sculptures of cats crop up here and there, all over the temple's estate. The herb garden here is very lush...despite being far from the river. The water features here, too, are generous. Some of the sculptures shapeshift every now and then...as do the herbs in the garden, and the water in the pools.
In the catacombs beneath this temple, a dusk potion brews. Its steam transfigures into cold, dry clouds of dust magic, as it rises from the potion's bubbly surface.
Here and there across the floors, scarabs crawl. Scarabs have always been welcome visitors of Islamic worlds. It's a tradition that goes back to Coptic Egypt...millennia before Mohammed himself was even born.
On a wall, there's a mural. In it, nine black cats lie, all in a row. They're all wearing bags on slings across their backs. Gold trinkets spill from all of them. All of the cats are dead.
At the end of the chain they make, a little white mouse sits, victoriously. For this long, that simple white mouse has tormented the cat. It looks like he's going to win. It's unclear as to whether this mural is the pure state of things, or just a foreshadow within a foreshadow... But then, considering that it hints something that happens in the future, it's probably the same thing.
Every now and then, this mural changes what it reveals. Up until now, it's portrayed less than nine dead cats...but always the same white mouse...unchanged, and far from suffering...
A woman comes downstairs. She does not look like an Arab. She's an icy blonde bombshell with a plump rack. She'd be nude right now...if not for some garment she wraps around herself. She looks like she's come downstairs for a bath.
On the surface, this seems like an awkward place to have a bath. There are baths, after all, in the temple above...and not to mention all kinds of dusk herbs to spice such baths up...as well as sweeten the fragrance of...
Meet Agent Mafdet. She's a time-traveler from Ancient Persia. The end of a time pirate's career has been the beginning of hers. Its hangar is in a cellar just above this temple's rectory.
She's also a sorceress of sorts; hence the dusk potions. Around her neck, she wears an amulet. With it, she channels much of her power. She dresses like a high priestess...complete with bustier. That amulet looks mighty fine, dangling on a golden chain just above her epic boobs...
The gem in the amulet glows. As this happens, the cauldron of dusk potion transfigures itself...into a bathtub with the potion still in it. For this, the potion has been enlarged in quantity. It still generates clouds of cold and dry dusk magic...as well as a fragrance of sorts.
The fragrance if of the estrus of a DWARF: a Divorced Woman Alone and Ready to Fuck...
With a simple vanishing spell, Agent Mafdet vanishes her clothes. Now, she's in the nude. With easy feet and shaved legs, she step over the bathtub's rim, and stands tall and strong, thigh-deep in the potion she's brewed.
She raises both arms to her sides, and stands like a cross. Again, the gem in her pendant glows. Below her, the potion bubbles, and generates more dusk magic clouds and fragrance. The clouds of dusk magic glow orange...like a sunset.
Gradually, Mafdet assumes the embryonic position. As she does, she goes under.
Around the tub, in her absence, silence follows. On the walls, the torches dim.
In the mural, something changes. The white mouse, who was standing near the nine cats' carcasses only moments before, has vanished from the portrait...
Now, Mafdet surfaces, stands, and spreads her arms again. Now, she drips with the potion. Now, she drips with a sacrilegious mating fragrance...
Above her, a portal of dusk magic opens, wreathed by a ring of orange-glowing dusk clouds. Into the Dusk Dimension, the new mating scent of Mafdet billows. It's on its way to the future.
"Find him," Mafdet shouts. "Make him mine! Make him Mafdet's! Make him a mouse for this lioness to chase!" She claps her hands, and laughs evilly. Just above her, within the portal, orange lightning flashes. It's slow, and its subsequent thunder is piano, adagio, and bass...
Soon, Mafdet will have her mouse. All she's got to do is wait...