Character Analysis
Meow. This ancient Egyptian Goddess has the body of the beautiful young woman and the head of the cat. Quite the combo.
She is the Morrigan's aunt, Hekate's sister, and is so powerful that Perenelle fears for her husband and the twins when she knows that the cat goddess is joining Dee. Like her niece, Bastet is sleek, angular, and sharp in appearance as well as personality. When Dr. John Dee first looks at her, he notices that Bastet is "sleek and furred, with huge yellow slit-pupiled eyes, a long pointed snout and high triangular ears" (20.42). A huntress by nature, Bastet's "razor tipped claws" shred Dee's coat. She howls to her cat children that it is "time to hunt, time to feed" (20.50). So the long and short of it is, this woman is fierce.
Shape-Shifter
Bastet is a creature linked with transformation. She, like the Torc Allta, is neither animal, nor human, but caught somewhere in between. She was worshiped in ancient Egypt for her shape-shifting qualities, and like Hekate and the Morrigan, she is not one, but three beings—Mafdet, Sekhmet, and Menhit (28.27). She can be whichever being she wants to be whenever she wants, which makes her a bit hard to pin down.
One Fickle Feline
What we do know about Bastet is that she has no loyalty, not even to servants who have served her faithfully for more than a century. We see this most clearly when she abandons poor Senuhet, her personal servant at her Bel Air estate, just as the Shadowrealm implodes. Even as Senuhet "limped after Bastet, calling out her name, begging her to stop and help him," Bastet just keeps right on trucking (31.44). This is not someone you want having your back.
We'll let Dee sum it up for us:
He had seen how Bastet had abandoned Senuhet, who had been with her for at least a century, without a second glance. He knew they would do exactly the same to him, given the chance. But Dr. John Dee had plans to ensure that they never got that chance. (32.48)
Dee, for one, takes notice of the way she and the other Elders treat everyone else as though they were their playthings. And he learns a lesson from it: Bastet had better watch out, lest her treatment of others put her own life on the line in the future. She should probably take a page out of Josh's book. He's tempted many times to join the other side, but he stays true to Flamel and his sister. Maybe Bastet should take notice.