Tales of the Witchblade Issue 8 is the eight of nine part Witchblade comics series, which focus on other wielders of the Witchblade.
Synopsis[]
Having been defeated by Bastet, Racquel comes up with a plan to get rid of the goddess once and for all.
Characters[]
Plot Summary[]
Racquel and Bastet begin to fight each other as Sallah tries to calmed both of them down. Racquel reveals that Anubis has given her power to defeat the goddess for stealing Sallah's affection. Bastet denies this, saying that the two fell in love with each other. Racquel refuses to believe her and shoots a blast of fire at her. In order to protect Sallah from snakes coming into his cage, Bastet turns him into stone.
Racquel sees this as a prove to her doubts of Bastet's love to Sallah. Bastet explains, that now Sallah will be impervious to her spells. She then destroys the snakes in the tomb, so they wouldn't hurt her. Bastet then creates multiple copies of herself and proceeds to overwhelm Racquel. She then puts her to sleep and traps Racquel inside the tomb. The goddess then turns her gaze to Sallah and turns him back to normal. Bastet tells Sallah, that she didn't hurt Racquel as the prince rests in her arms.
Later that day, Racquel breaks out of the tomb and returns to her mother. She's enraged for losing to Bastet and vows to not rest until the goddess is dead. Although, Racquel has no idea how to defeat Bastet, her servant points out that the goddess, because of her connection to cats, must be to most vain of all the gods. This gives the princess an idea as to to use this to her advantage.
The princess mother then confronts Racquel for angering Sallah as he has cancelled the wedding. The princess mother is furious at her, saying that her wedding never had anything to do with love and only power matters. Racquel answers, that she doesn't want Sallah's love, but only his attention. Her mother then reveals , that she has sent Racquel's brother, Mahmoud with her promises of contrition. She then orders Racquel to apologise to Bastet in order to appease the prince and then marry him. Racquel complies.
Later, the princess brother, Mahmoud meets with prince Sallah. Meanwhile, Racquel eavesdrops on their conversation. He warns, that if the princess cancels the wedding, Mahmoud's father will go to war with him. Although Sallah is at first hesitant in the end he decides to give Racquel one more chance. After hearing this, Racquel goes to thaumaturgists laboratory below the desert. Thaumaturgist creates a statue for Bastet, which should trapped the goddess inside of it. Al-Fahid then asks Racquel to empower the statue with strong magic. After doing this, they test the statue on a cat. As a cat approaches, her soul is instantly trapped inside the statue. Racquel is pleased with the idol and the thaumaturgist asks for his payment. Racquel instead kills him in order to keep the secret about the statue.
Meanwhile, Sallah expresses his worries about his ultimate death to Bastet. The goddess calms him down, saying that she will always love him no matter how old he is. Bastet then reveals, that the gods, bestow the power of immortality to a single mortal they choose. She then bestows this power to Sallah.
Two days later, prince Sallah is visited by Racquel. She apologises for her foolishness and wishes happiness to them. She then gives them two gifts. A bracelet for Sallah and the idol for Bastet. As Bastet picks up the idol, it immediately traps Bastet and her pet tiger Manares. This enrages Sallah and he begins to strangle Racquel, ordering her to bring back his lover. Racquel explains, that she can't as the Witchblade erects metal appendages into Sallah's body. Although the appendages impale the prince, his immortality prevents him from dying. This helps Sallah to continue strangling Racquel until she dies. With Bastet trapped inside the idol, Sallah puts her body inside a tomb and vows to find a way to bring her back. To be continued...