T'Challa did not answer Russell right away. The force binding him had long since vanished, but he remained where he stood, hands slightly open before him as he looked down at his palms.
A powerful force surged through his veins, stronger than ever before. It was like a river whose channels had been cleared, carrying several times as much water as it once had.
When he heard Russell say, "As long as you believe in Om Messiah, you'll grow stronger," his first reaction was resistance.
It rose from deep in his bones, carrying the pride and defiance etched into the blood of generations of Black Panther warriors.
But in that instant, the power inside him began to ebb. It drained away as swiftly and surely as a falling tide, dropping from its peak to its lowest point so fast that he was caught off guard.
What was going on?!
He thought of Russell's words and instinctively pushed that hostility aside. The power flooded back just as quickly, surging even more fiercely than before. For an instant, his muscles tightened almost to the point of cramping.
The roller-coaster swing left T'Challa utterly speechless.
He lifted his gaze from his hands to the Heart-Shaped Herbs in the pool, now brimming with life again.
They really did look better than before. Their leaves were thicker, their dark purple sheen deeper, and the edges of their silver halos bore a faint gold trim. He had never seen them like this.
Suppressing his displeasure, he asked Russell, who seemed to be treating all this as a game:
"When Wakanda's future heirs take the Heart-Shaped Herb, will they no longer see their ancestors or Bast?"
Russell folded his arms and replied casually:
"The ancestors you used to see after taking the Heart-Shaped Herb were all fake.