Vanishing in mid-stride, Jen appeared in another part of the mall, ensuring that nobody would find her actions odd. She moved toward a girl looking into a store window at a beautiful dress.
"Hey, Lea," said the Goddess, ensuring the other wouldn't find this strange, "what's wrong?"
The plain-looking young woman didn't turn her head. She shrugged her shoulders. "Well, you know, the usual. I'm barely scraping by, what with rent and food and everything being so high, never mind tuition, and I can't get a boyfriend to save my life. Maybe if I could afford something like that, or heck, wear it without looking silly..."
"Well," said Jen, "today's your lucky day. By the time you go to sleep tonight, you'll be the hottest, richest person on campus, and you'll have more boyfriends than you'll know what to do with. And girlfriends, too."
"What kind of girlfriend?"
Jen, of course, knew things about Lea she had never shared with anyone, but Lea didn't find it odd when Jen made it clear that she knew with her reply. "That kind of girlfriend."
"If you can pull that off, you must be some sort of miracle worker."
"Oh, I'm a lot more than that. I'm God, but please, call me Jen."
A thought from Jen made their surroundings shift, and they ended up in Lea's small apartment.
"Whoa!" said the human. "You can just... do that?"
"Oh, and so much more," said the Goddess, and with another gesture their surroundings changed once more.
Gone was the dingy room with its faded carpet, small TV, too-short chairs and hard bed. In its place was a luxurious bedroom with a massive four-poster bed with silk sheets, a soft shag carpet, chairs made to fit Lea's form perfectly and tables large enough to fit two desktop computers and three laptops, along with six tablets on a rack, among many other pieces of such equipment, while still leaving ample room for Lea to spread out texts and written work. A huge dresser dominated another side of the room. Jen opened it with a wave of her hand to reveal an incredible wardrobe, along with full-length mirrors inside each door.
Lea ran over and grabbed a dress at random. She couldn't tell what the material was, but she was pretty sure the gems were real, and that the fringing was pure gold.
"Oh, that's a new material I just made. Proof against all weather conditions--even keeps your exposed skin safe, just sucks the stuff up, sort of like a magnet. Impossible to damage, too, well, unless I'm the one trying. Won't ever look at all worn, either."
Lea replaced the dress and continued to thumb through her new clothes. They ran the gamut from dresses she was sure she'd only wear to the sort of events to which someone like her couldn't even dream of being invited, to casual apparel that had comprised her entire collection of outfits, only her new stuff was clearly far superior in quality. "I'd look silly wearing any of this."
"Not once we're done with you, you won't."
"We?" said Lea, not having noticed the third person in the room.
"Hi, Lea," a musical voice said from behind her. Lea turned to see Jen sitting on the bed, next to a woman of similar stature and build, with long white-blonde hair. "I'm Amia."
"My chief archangel," added Jen.
"So, what are you going to do?"
"I told you," said the Goddess. "We're going to make you the richest, hottest person on your campus, and give you a veritable harem of boyfriends and girlfriends."
"So, for the richest part," said Amia, "as you might have guessed, you're in a mansion--a palace, in fact. It and the land surrounding it are yours; in fact, you are an independent country now. Well, not just you, the city is part of it as well, and I've created a natural harbour on the coastline. You're also entirely self-sufficient and, despite being one of the world's smallest states, are a net exporter. Welcome home, Your Majesty."
"Wait, you just made me Queen of my own country?"
"Sure," said Jen.
"And everybody's fine with this?"
"Why wouldn't they be? I want them to be, so they are."
Lea walked over to one of her chairs and sat down. "So, how rich am I?"
"Well, as I said, you are a net exporter. Much of that wealth flows to you. But you also have numerous international patents on things we just created, and an investment portfolio worth billions. It's controlled by a program that aggregates news articles, press releases, basically all public information, sifts through it and predicts fluctuations in investment values, and adjusts accordingly. You're proof against any accusations of insider trading."
"As for protecting your national interests," said Jen, "many of your patents are for highly advanced weaponry. If you look in the bottom drawer of your wardrobe you'll find a small cube. It opens up into, for lack of a better term, a battlesuit. All you have to do is step in it and you're in control of enough force to rearrange tectonic plates however you want. Just a tiny fraction of the power at your command is billions of times greater than the total destructive force of every weapon humans have ever created. That said, since you do hold those patents, everybody knows this. You can also call the cube to your hand with a thought, wherever you and it are. It's also completely impervious to all harm, as are you."
Lea was silent for a long moment. When she did speak she sounded shaken. "I guess that takes care of the 'richest' part, then. And if I have an entire city under my control, I guess that takes care of that harem bit--"
"No," interrupted Amia, "they are not devoted to you in that way. You have a staff of thousands maintaining this palace, but even they are not. Don't worry. You'll get your harem."
"You are, however, an absolute monarch. There is an advisory body composed of people from your country, but ultimately you answer to no other human and can rule as you see fit."
"I'll still look silly in those dresses."
"No, you won't. Come on."
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