Taking a deep breath, he stammered an answer to the panther goddess, the only answer he thought could get him out alive.
"I know things, things that I am not supposed to know, and I have a power that allowed me to infiltrate Wakanda and come here."
__________________________
Bast seemed to take a moment to herself to look him in the eyes.
"YOU INFILTRATED WAKANDA?"
Arthur nodded his head and said,
"Yes."
"AND YOU STOLE MY HERB?"
"…Yes."
Instead of looking furious at his obvious ignorance and lack of respect for Wakanda and its resources, she looked curious.
"HOW?"
"My power allows me to…"
Bast interrupted him rather rudely.
"NO. SHOW ME."
Arthur frowned at her, not understanding the request.
"What?"
"YOUR POWER. SHOW ME."
"My power has been activated since I entered Wakanda. Before taking the Heart-Shaped Herb, it was still activated."
Bast looked at him and decided to see how things were looking from outside.
Their entire conversation happened inside Arthur's mind. The second Bast diverted her attention to her omnipresence inside the room, she realized she had almost completely forgotten about him.
What stopped his power from working as intended was, in fact, the Heart-Shaped Herb. The Herb was a special plant that only grew in Wakanda, on vibranium-rich soil, but even then, for the Herb to actually grant power, the soil needed to be blessed by Bast herself.
This made the Heart-Shaped Herb an extension of Bast's own divinity, which is why anyone consuming the Herb needed to be accepted by Bast. For the Black Panther, this test of acceptance came in the form of a conversation with the goddess wearing their ancestor's skin.
Arthur, by consuming the Herb, had basically created a back door for Bast to bypass his power.
His power made the entire universe forget his existence, everyone except him. Since Bast was now a part of him, she managed not to forget his existence either.
Returning her focus to their conversation in his mind, Bast looked at him in silence before slowly grinning.
"OH THAT IS INTERESTING, VERY INTERESTING."
If before she had seemed intrigued by him, now she was fascinated.
As the divine representation of a feline god, no matter if, as a panther, she appeared as a wise god, at the core of her being she was like a cat, curious and lazy, able to play with her food for an hour one day and do nothing but sleep the next.
Lowering herself so she could take an even closer look than before, she practically purred her next sentence, sounding like nothing more than an excited kid.
"SO, HOW DOES IT WORK, IS IT SOME SORT OF INVISIBILITY, OR A SPELL, OR IS IT A MUTATION, ARE YOU A MUTANT, OR AN INHUMAN, IS IT TECHNOLOGY, TELL ME, TELL ME"
Arthur was nearly overwhelmed by her excitement. Seeing that she appeared genuinely curious, he explained to her what his power was, still keeping the god's letter to himself for now.
"It's named "Fading." When I woke up two days ago, a single sentence describing it was engraved in my mind: "Fading: Allows the user to make the universe forget him. Think "FADE" to activate. Think "SHOW" to deactivate." Since then I've tried to find some limits for it but found none, until you managed to circumvent them."
Bast seemed to be vibrating with excitement at his power, her mind already spinning theory upon theory of how it worked, why, on whom it could be used, and all the possibilities it could offer him.
"FIRST OF ALL, DON'T MISUNDERSTAND, I DIDN'T CIRCUMVENT YOUR POWER. YOU CHOSE TO EAT THE HEART-SHAPED HERB WITHOUT REALLY UNDERSTANDING HOW IT WORKS. THAT'S ON YOU."
While saying that, she did not sound upset, just blunt and honest.
"AND SECOND OF ALL, THE FACT THAT THE FIRST THING THAT CAME TO YOUR MIND, UPON FINDING YOURSELF WITH SUCH POWER, WAS TO STEAL, REALLY DOESN'T IMPROVE THE PICTURE I HAVE OF YOU RIGHT NOW."
He just shrugged before replying,
"And what do you want me to do with it, huh? At the end of the day, as long as I'm just a squishy, weak human, my range of options is seriously limited."
"I SEE, PERFORMANCE ISSUES. IT'S NOT UNCOMMON. DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT."
He looked at her, speechless, before laughing lightly, thinking to himself, 'she really was a special goddess.'
"NOW, WHAT TO DO ABOUT YOUR SITUATION IS ANOTHER QUESTION, ISN'T IT."
"Yeah, but at the end of the day, I'm at your mercy right now."
"YES, YOU ARE."
Arthur shuddered a little more before Bast took pity on him and lay down in front of him. With her on the ground, her nose was within reaching distance of him.
Hesitating a few moments over whether petting a panther goddess was a good idea, he let go of the thought, deciding he was already in a bad enough situation without worsening it.
"BUT I AM A BENEVOLENT GODDESS, AND YOU INTEREST ME MORE THAN YOU THINK."
He glanced up, looking hopeful.
"KILLING YOU WOULD OBVIOUSLY BE A PITY. THE FACT THAT THERE IS KNOWLEDGE I CAN'T OBTAIN IS SIMPLY VEXING FOR ME."
"SO LET'S MAKE A DEAL. YOU WILL GIVE ME THE EXTENT OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE, AND I WILL GRANT YOU MY BLESSING. IF I AM SATISFIED WITH WHAT YOU GIVE ME, I WILL ALSO NOT INFORM THE BLACK PANTHER OF YOUR TRESPASSING IN HIS HOUSE AND THE THEFT OF ONE OF HIS MOST PRECIOUS RESOURCES."
Arthur looked at her and slowly nodded, not really having a choice, the fact that he could still obtain the objective of his trip offered little consolation for his bruised ego.
Offering some of his limited knowledge to a literal goddess wouldn't have tasted so bitter if it had been his choice from the start. Had he known of the existence and power of Bast beforehand, he probably still would have chosen the Heart-Shaped Herb over other options, it being one of the only ones that could be used on himself immediately.
Still, managing to gain the upgrade for his body while backed into a corner was still a small win for him.
He looked up into her eyes, seeing once more the shining curiosity and excitement reflected in them, and thought to himself that she was not a bad goddess.
"Alright, I will tell you what I know."
_____