Alicia Cahalane Lewis's gorgeous new novella, The Archivist, imagines how the first feline goddess, the black panther, found her way into the stories and legends of ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, and Egypt.

Narrated in first person plural by a band of roaming nomads who are the first to worship the goddess, they are compelled to honor their black panther, who has dropped into their lives unexpectedly, by building the first feline sphinx.

When a Bedouin girl appears, claiming she was once the black panther the nomads worship, she is dismissed until decades pass, a generation of nomads die, and the girl remains a girl. In time, the next generation of nomads find their goddess in the young woman and begin immortalizing her as she digs from the rubble of their past ancient knowledge.

Once immortalized as the original sphinx, the goddess has been lost. She is asking to be found. Can we dig from the rubble the remnants of our past and honor her, thereby honoring ourselves?

A mesmerizing goddess tale of ancient wisdom and understanding, this is as much our story as it is hers.