Jessica greets us with, "Solved already, huh?"

James shrugs, "I had help, but, well, if crooks were smart…"

"... then they wouldn't be crooks," completes Jessica. "So what sealed the deal?"

"Officially: The timing was too perfect. Cameras were down, no patrons were in there, and only one teller on the floor. Had to be an inside job, and when I confronted the only good candidate, she cracked and ran. Which gave me probable cause enough to arrest her and check her purse, where we found the money.  Door logs should back that up, and I figure the tech boys in the city will find how she did the audio … I'm guessing a recording on her phone… but at this point it is just paperwork."

"And unofficially?"

"Unofficially, our little conundrum's gifts made it stupidly obvious she was lying to my face. Better than a polygraph."

That makes me cringe. And I'm not trying to hide it, so Jessica picks up on it, "What’s bugging you?"

"OK, so, those gifts merely enhance the skills everyone has to pick up on subtle cues that everyone gives off. I know this, I built them. But the comparison to tech that's banned from court makes me worry."

James pauses, "A fine line indeed, but those were banned for being demonstrably unreliable. There's liars that can pass them, and truth-tellers that can fail them. Not for civil liberties. But yeah, sorry man. At least there's only the two, right?"

Jessica sighs, "James and I are going to be stuck on paperwork for the rest of the day anyway… meet you at home sweetness?"

"Yeah… I need to clear my head. See you there."

I can feel all eyes on me as I leave. But that’s because I look like a million dollar call girl, not because anyone thinks I did anything. Nobody stops me. I walk away from the station, find a spot away from cameras, cast Invisibility on myself, and follow up with Fly (a spell that does exactly what it says: Lets you fly). I then take to the skies.

I am fourth level now, and with this build, that gives me access to 3rd level spells. Those seriously open up the game. Flight, combat useful mind control, the ability to burn things from outside a pistol's effective range, the ability to build a small army, and more. Taking over a country at this point would be feasible. It would be quite simple to walk through a nation's security with Invisibility, then mind control the leaders with Charm Person. With Divine Providence and my Charisma score, the opposed Charisma check to make someone do something they normally wouldn't will always land in my favor: I can make basically anyone do basically anything I tell them to do. Pass laws. Start wars. Stop wars. Have a straight woman give me carpet service. As long as it's not suicidal, it's fair game.

But to what end? I wouldn't have any real friends, just mind controlled ones. Live in luxury? I can make gold, silver, and gemstones from nothing. Hand over enough gold, and people will give me that. Rich folks have the same basic problems, though. Can't be sure who's a real friend and who's really friendly with money.

Real friends are important to happiness, though.  So ultimately what I need to do is be a regular middle class bloke. Get a wife, have some kids, work a nine to five… I cast See Invisibility (another spell that does what it says on the tin), so I can look down at myself. But these girls make it hard to do that, don't they? I can get rid of them now; Alter Self or Infuse Self will last as long as I like… but this is me now. I've accepted that, and anything else would be strange.

Hmm. Something James said though… "only two," that was it. That rings wrong. Why… ah. *I* have only made two. But there's no particular reason this hasn't happened before, is there?  If that eldritch entity could empower me now, there's no particular reason why it couldn't have done so for others before or after me.  Assuming I'm unique is probably not a great choice. How would I test… if there was magic before, but it was lost due to, say, security measures like I plan to put in any gear I make for myself, then… a museum? A magic item that can only be used by the worshippers of a deity long since abandoned would seem mundane, wouldn't it? So I could simply cast Arcane Sight and go look.

I pull out my phone and dig up the address of the nearest museum that has real ancient artifacts on display… Oh, an Egypt exhibit is in town, that should be a good start… hop on a bus - on top, as I'm invisible - and head over there. Why a bus? Fly is limited to a double move, and so at a speed of 60 can do at most 12 miles per hour. Haste can increase that to 18, but that’s still nowhere near fast enough for the county roads, the freeway, or similar. Which all makes it faster to go by bus.  And walking inside while invisible doesn't seem like a great idea, you know?

At the museum, I consider: The low doors will make invisibility dicey, and I should pay anyway. So I find a quiet alley, and dismiss Invisibility.

I walk in the front door, paying my way like a normal person. I summon a pair of shades to cover the glow, put them on, and cast Arcane Sight.  

…

Wow.

Of those things in the Egyptian display, every other item that's not flagged as a replica is magical. I take my time and actually identify a few through the glass case: Most of them are just a skill bonus to whatever the tool is used for… when wielded by a worshiper of some specific deity related to that thing. Some are tied to specific family lines. There's a couple that can be used by anyone, theoretically … but those have a command based activation, and without the actual command… well. Easy to see how these things could be overlooked and not recognized as magic. You can't see magic without magic of your own, and all of them either only work for a certain group of people, require specific information to actually use, or both. Regardless of how, they're all locked, nobody knows that the lock is even there, and nobody has the key anyway. Of course they seem like useless antiquities. A cell phone without a charge is just a paperweight if you don't have any way to charge it.

I leave them alone, of course. I have no need to steal from the museum, I can make stuff like this anyway.

I walk through the entire museum, and start taking note of the dates on the magical items in the collections… seems before about 2000 BC, magic was quite common - but locked down with command words, tied to specific family lines, tied to specific deities, or some combination. Even some of the pottery from before that date has magic on it for lighting or preservation. After that? Nothing. What happened? Some kind of disaster, obviously… unclear what.

As I go through the museum, to all appearances simply paying close attention to random exhibits, something keeps bugging me. Something someone said a while back.  Jessica. That's right: "Which suggests you were modeled after the statue."

I stop dead in my tracks. Did the eldritch entity throw the bet? If I am modeled after the statue, and the statue is intended as part of jumpstarting civilization after a disaster… and there was an end to magical civilization worldwide… am I supposed to jumpstart magic?

If I am, it's a really roundabout way to do it. OK, yes, I can give magic directly to folks who worship me now… but me picking that option doesn't seem very reliable. What was I given that I'd pretty much have to give away, right from the start?

I feel wet, and look down: Oh, great. I'm leaking milk again.

…

I've had that from the beginning, haven't I?

…

Jessica's had some. And it feels really good when I let someone drink.

…

I should ask her if she's noticed anything, maybe walk her through a basic spell that's on all the class lists; Detect Magic shows up everywhere, so it should do.  Well, that would sound nuts, and at this point, it's all supposition. I should maybe try to read her first to see if she can cast… and Arcane Sight, which I'm running already, has a clause that lets me do exactly that. I should ask her about it the next time I see her. Which will likely be tonight. I'm not sure how I'm going to phrase things… but I can cross that bridge when I come to it.

For now, I have learned what I set out to learn, and I think I've cleared my head, so it's time to go home. I leave the museum, get on the bus like a normal person, and head back to Jessica's.