AN: Thanks to everyone that has reviewed. There were several ideas that will definitely be incorporated. Keep them coming in the comments! I am humbled that this story has broken the 500 review mark, when I first decided to put my spin on a gamer story, I didn't dare to hope that there would be so much support. I read every review and they mean the world to me.

With his magic depleted, Jon was extremely wary of the over-sized Fanged Weaver spider. Its beady eyes, bristling black hair, shiny black coloring and the blood-red skull-shaped mark covering the large abdomen were the stuff of nightmares. His already depleted store of MP was being drained by the Light that he had conjured before being forced into battle with the hairy arachnid.

While ducking under a blast of webbing that was about the size of one of the spider's smaller counterparts, Jon accessed his inventory and drew a second sword which he equipped in his left hand. With both swords at the ready, Jon kept low while charging at the beast.

Hopefully, I can stop it from spitting those blasted webs if I can attack it from close range.

His charge brought him within an arm's reach of the Fanged Weaver and Jon aimed a strike at its oversized body with the sword in his right hand. The spider shifted just enough that the sword strike was slowed by the stiff, bristly hairs on its legs before clanking against the tough exoskeleton and bouncing off.

Though the result of the strike caused Jon to go slightly off balance, he was able to adjust on the fly and thrust the sword in his left hand forward to score a shallow cut on the body of the spider as it spun to stare him down with its lifeless eyes.

After a brief moment of contemplation, the spider lunged at Jon with a yellowish substance dripping from fangs that would make the meanest of hunting knives seem small and insignificant. Jon quickly shifted his body, pointed his swords to the ground, lowered his right shoulder then launched himself into a roll. As his body passed over his shoulder, Jon whipped both of his swords around and scored a pair of deep gashes on the underside of the spider's body which proceeded to drip a thick ichor on the floor of the chamber.

The spider emitted a high pitch screech to convey the rage it felt due to Jon's attack before spitting a barrage of webbing at Jon in an attempt to slow down the prey that dared to defy its will.

Jon moved without thought as his instincts maneuvered him through the blasts of webbing and steadily closer to the enraged arachnid.

Unlike the previous time that Jon charged, the spider was unwilling to let Jon get close. Just as he stepped into range, the spider pushed itself off the ground while twisting its body rapidly and extending its legs to full length. By doing this, the spider's body was transformed into a shuriken-like weapon that Jon saw but was unable to dodge as he was knocked ten feet from his previous location and fell to the floor with a heavy thud.

Pushing his body from the floor with the hilt from one of his swords, Jon shook his head to clear the stupor from the hit and witnessed the end of the spider's momentum as it came to a stop before a series of hops ended with another stare down between the spider and the Snow.

Jon clenched his teeth as he set off running at path diagonal to the spider, in an attempt to get out of its field of vision. The spider was having none of that as its eight legs made a staccato beat on the floor like a muted drum for a marching war party. Though Jon kept running, the steady rhythm of the eight legs moving in unison made sure that the spider did not lose track of what it thought to be its next meal.

Realizing that his effort to reach the spider's blind spot was futile at this point in time, Jon changed his tactics and planted his right foot in the floor before charging directly towards the spider. Again, the charge was met with a barrage of webbing that Jon was able to navigate through due to his elevated evasion abilities.

Having learned from his previous mistake, Jon stopped his charge and leapt back to avoid the limbs that spun with enough force to bodily throw him ten feet if they were to connect. As the spider dropped down to the floor, Jon rushed in and slashed at the still spinning body of the spider while keeping his feet moving as if he was running to avoid the limbs that still had the capacity to make him lose his footing if he was not cognizant of their location.

As the spinning stopped, Jon took off running to distance himself from the wounded spider. Though Jon had not been able to crack through the thick exoskeleton, he had scored several significant gashes on the spider's body that were steadily relieving the spider of its vitality.

Apparently the spider had also learned from its previous interactions with Jon as it refrained from sending a barrage of web blasts at Jon, it elected to shoot a continuous blast of webbing at Jon from its mouth that coated the floor as he evaded with relative ease.

However, Jon would learn that all good things come to an end as his boot landed on the ground and refused to move. With Jon's foot held in place, it was not long before he found himself bound to the ground by the spider's web.

As the spider steadily crept closer, the telltale tapping caused Jon's heartrate to accelerate. Though his MP were still depleted from the conjuration of the light spell, Jon focused all of his energies in an attempt to prevent the inevitable conclusion for any creature with the misfortune to find itself caught in a spider's web.

Recalling how much energy it took to conjure a simple ball of light, Jon focused his entire being into a vision of the spider leaving him alone while he freed himself from the webbing that bound him.

Each second that passed with the spider slowly advancing to its captured foe was a failure for Jon. Still he kept pushing even as his vision dimmed and sweat poured from his body with the amount of energy he was committing to his goal. As the spider drew itself to tower over its defeated foe, Jon kept pushing his energy into the Magic Manipulation.

Even as the tips of the fangs broke through the sticky silk that had trapped Jon, he did not allow his concentration to break. Jon's eyes widened as the needle sharp tips of the spider's fangs broke the skin on the right side of his neck and he pushed everything he had into his purpose.

He was awarded with a series of notifications.

Evasion +500+500+3000+3000+4000+3200+7800
One-Handed +500+500+1000+4000
Light Armor +1000+1000
Destruction: Magic Manipulation +10000
Illusion: Calm +10000
Calm: Calm is a novice spell that will cause a hostile creature or person to cease their aggressions until they are enraged for any reason. Spell cost determined by the level of the target relative to your level; base cost 50 MP +/- 1% for every level higher/lower the target is when compared to the caster.

Jon woke to a tickling feeling on his face. Though his world was still slightly dark around the edges he could not help but notice that his view of the world was blocked by a sheet of lilac hair, that he almost mistook for white or blonde in the distant light cast by the torch, had . The presence of the hair was an unexpected surprise to be sure but even more surprising was the mysterious sensation on his neck. There was a throbbing ache that seemed to pulse with a warm, wet, insistent suction that was firmly rooted by the soft pressure of lips on his tender skin.

He tried to lift his left arm and sit up but whomever, or whatever, was attending to his neck caught his wrist in the apex of the space between its warm thighs as he tried to raise his arm. Jon fought a blush at the sudden confirmation that whoever currently had their lips affixed to his neck was certainly a female as there was no way to disguise such a thing with his wrist held in such a tight grip in such an intimate location.

With a croak, Jon tried to find his voice. This caused a small pressure that had been applied to his chest to move to cover his mouth. As the hand slipped over his mouth, Jon noticed the entrancingly black, long nails that seemed to be deliberately held away from his face in an attempt to keep him safe from their predatorily sharp edges. His eyes followed the inky blackness of the nails up the long fingers, through the slender hand, over the graceful forearm to the middle of the woman's toned bicep which was circled by a pair of golden rings that held what must have been a black glove and preempted the change from the darkest of blacks to the palest of whites.

"Mmmhmmmhmm," Jon tried to speak, which prompted additional pressure on his mouth from the hand and an extra squeeze of his wrist as the legs drew together insistently, further restraining his wrist with warm flesh and silky fabric. Additionally, the suction from the lips on his neck wavered slightly as the hair shook back and forth as the woman nonverbally communicated her disagreement.

Though Jon wanted nothing more than to question the woman about what had happened to the spider and to warm her of the potential danger in the chamber, he forced himself to lay back and accept her ministrations while contemplating how he would much prefer her teeth at his throat to the spider that was last attacking him when he was bound to the floor.

Wait a minute, Jon thought while moving his left arm and legs slightly. I was bound by the spider's web when it attacked. How is it that I am free now?

The pressure on his mouth and wrist were increased again and the woman's other hand swatted his stomach in warning before resting there, just above the leather belt that held up his black leather cuisse. He knew it was not the time but he could not help his body's reaction…

As his blood pressure started to rise, the hand started to rub the tight muscles of his stomach and he felt the pressure on his neck increase substantially. After a minute that almost had Jon's head spinning, the suction stopped suddenly and he turned his head to catch a glimpse of the woman that had just performed such an intimate action.

"Remove your hand from the back of my leg, if you wish to keep it," Jon's hand had curled around the woman's thigh just under the curve of her shapely hindquarters when she had pulled away from his neck in an involuntary attempt to maintain the feeling of her body pressed against his own. "I apologize for my forward behavior but the poison had to be removed."

The woman stood and raised her gaze to meet Jon squarely in the eye. Jon's gaze took in her bare feet with gold rings attached to that same black fabric that encircled her long legs and were topped by golden rings similar to those present on her biceps nestled on the creamy skin of her thigh. At the juncture where her legs met her body, there were the same gold rings on the leg holes of the scant black garment that covered her most private parts before the fabric tapered into a small strip of fabric that rose from her pelvis over her flat stomach, covering her navel while leaving the curve of her sides exposed before tunneling outward to contour around the curve of her breasts and ending at a similar golden choker around her neck set with a red stone that seemed to beat like a heart.

"There's nothing to forgive," Jon managed to say while pushing himself to standing position with a wince, counting himself lucky to have anything to distract from the sight of her. With a deep breath, he shook his head and sought out the face of the woman who had appeared to save him when all had seemed lost. What he saw caused his breath to catch in his throat. "What magic is this?"

The woman raised her perfectly symmetrical face and shook her lilac hair to frame her face revealing a decisive chin, pouty lips set on a heart-shaped face and incredible dark eyes set under a… What in the name of the Old Gods?!

Above her eyes was a second, equally dark, set of eyes. All four of them were staring at Jon with a look of annoyance. Though she did not seem like she was surprised by Jon's reaction, he could definitely sense her annoyance. In an attempt not to stare at the eyes that seemed to be boring into his soul, Jon's eyes drifted down to the fabric covering her midsection and he noticed that there were two red lines that disappeared diagonally into the fabric of her outfit, if you could call it that.

His mouth fell open as he took a step toward her with his arm outstretched. "But why?"

"I didn't ask to be made this way," she answered while turning to show him her back.

Jon started to respond but the words died in his throat when he saw the angry red welts covering the otherwise flawless cream-colored skin on her back and the blood red skull shaped mark nestled on the small of her back. Jon would later claim it was because of the light of the torch but he could not help but notice that although the garment that was small in the front it was virtually nonexistent in the back. He could see both of her lovely cheeks in their full glory with only the smallest sliver of black fabric nestled between them.

She did not give him much time to stare as she promptly turned around to face him again. "I was punished for my hubris by one of the OldGgods. People came from far and wide to purchase the finest weaved goods in the world crafted by the masterful hand of Arachne. Due to my hubris, I accepted a weaving challenge from a tramp of a woman who claimed that there was no one in all of the world that could have more skill when it came to weaving than she."

Arachne rubbed her left bicep with her right arm, causing her impressive bust to rise and fall almost hypnotically while casting her gaze towards the ground. "I have had many years to reflect on this event and believe that what happened next was the reason for all that transpired next. We weaved four tapestries each. She weaved scenes of the Old Gods punishing mortals that dared to challenge them while I, foolishly, wove depictions of mortals being wronged by the same gods."

Jon stepped toward her, wanting to comfort her despites the impulses waring him to stay away, and she involuntarily took a step backwards, caught-up in her story. "When the fourth and final tapestries were finished, there was no question as to which were the most beautiful. That is what cursed me. She was enraged that she had been bested by a mortal and incensed at the perceived slights to the Old Gods that were depicted in my tapestries."

She shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself. "She cursed me and I became the creature that you encountered earlier. I have known nothing but the insatiable hunger since being forced into that form while having no control of my actions. Nothing, until your magic, was able to block the curse that had kept me ensnared for all of these years. It was the least that I could do to try to counter the venom once the hold was broken."

Reeling from her story, Jon asked the first thing that came to his mind. "How were you able to counter the venom?"

Arachne took a step forward while dropping her head forward then throwing it back to expose her forehead in its entirety. Though the bottom two eyes in the center were in the correct position for a beautiful woman, there was the pair of eyes immediately above them as well as two eyes on each of her temples, just outside of the four eyes in the center of her face.

The effect of the eyes was unnerving, as was the thought that this beautiful woman was the very same spider that he had done battle with not so long ago that had tried to eat him. These thoughts were countered by the fact that she also had apparently been able to save him once she had been returned to her more human form.

"Lucky for both of us, it was just the tip of the fangs that had penetrated your skin before your magic broke through the transformation. Once I had readjusted to this form, I did the only thing I knew to counter a poisonous bite and sucked the poisoned blood from your body."

"I've heard of sucking the blood from a poisoned wound but, from what I understand, you are supposed to spit the blood out otherwise you risk poisoning yourself."

"Even though my body may appear to be human, I don't think that your magic is currently strong enough to break the curse set upon me by the Old God." Arachne pulled her lips back in a smile and revealed the fangs of a predator. "I could sense the poison coursing through your blood and was able to use magic to call it back to me."

Jon shifted uncomfortably. "Thanks for that. Look, about attacking you earlier…"

Arachne cut him off before he could continue, "Unfortunately, you are not the first being to find themselves in this chamber. The others were not so fortunate. I do not hold it against you that you would fight for your life when the curse made me try to kill you."

"Does the curse still make you want to kill me?" Jon asked warily. Though every part of her body from the neck down called to him like a moth to a flame, he couldn't help but think that she may be trying to get him to lower his guard.

"To be honest with you, yes, I still feel the drive from the curse." When Jon shifted to a defensive stance and his head whipped from side to side looking for his weapons, she continued. "But it is the trickle of a stream compared to the indomitable force of a river."

"So where does this leave us?" Jon asked as he located his blades and retrieved them, sheathing one before putting the other back into his inventory. "How long was I out?"

"Time moves differently here." Arachne swept her arm, gesturing to the chamber. "My cursed webbing has covered almost every surface of this place. Before you, this cursed webbing has never failed to capture anything that dared to move through these halls including time itself."

Jon's eyes went wide at her proclamation. "How can that be? How can you hold time?"

"I do not claim the power as my own." She answered while gesturing for him to follow as she started walking towards the lone torch illuminating the room since Jon's Light had ceased to exist when he lost consciousness. "I believe it to be due to the curse of the Old One."

Jon followed her, slightly disappointed that the light ahead of her did nothing to illuminate the pale flesh of her rear end. She does cut an impressive figure silhouetted against the light of the torch.

"Where are you taking me?" Jon asked, to steer his mind away from conflicting thoughts of desire to feel her body pressed against his again and wariness that the Calm that allowed her beauty to be revealed would be broken, causing her to transform again.

"I sense that there is something that we need to see. It is calling to me in the same way that the poison called to my magic when I was drawing it from your body."

Jon took a few quick steps to catch up with her before gently resting his hand on her shoulder causing her to turn to face him. "What do you know of magic?"

"Before I was cursed for my hubris, I had learned some of the more basic healing spells available at the time. My specialty was weaving, not magic."

"But in your time, did many know and use magic?"

"Of course, people used magic." Arachne confirmed with a puzzled look on her face. "There is magic in everything and cutting yourself off from that magic would be like going through life without the ability to see or without the ability to feel. Surely you must know this, with how you used magic earlier?"

"Until very recently, I had only heard of magic in stories. Like the dragons of old, it was something that was said to exist that no one alive now had ever seen with their own eyes. Even the maesters of the Citadel do not truly understand or seek out the secrets of magic. It is almost like they wish that the world would forget."

"I know nothing of your maesters or your Citadel but, to try and make people forget about magic…" Arachne shuddered and crossed her arms across her body to rub her exposed sides with her gloved hands.

Jon was mesmerized at the sight of her hands moving up and down the curve of her body and a question burst from his lips. "Are you cold? That outfit doesn't seem like it would offer much protection against the cold of winter."

Arachne's right hand rose from her side and rested on the pulsating red gem nestled in the gold choker on her neck. "No, the power of the Old One is still strong. My punishment was an eternity of weaving to bring death to the mortals that would dare to challenge the gods. Her power still courses through me ad keeps me warm."

"Did you always dress like that?" Jon made a show of looking her body up and down. "Things must have been very different in your time."

"From what you have told me, things were very different indeed. No, this is not something that I would have typically wore before I was cursed. Though I was proud of my body, a sight like this would have been reserved for my husband."

"Reserved for your husband," Jon nodded then realizing what she said and averting his gaze. "I should not have looked on you as I have."

"You have seen the curse that is upon me. Compared to that, I find no shame in you seeing me as I am now."

Jon nodded in understanding and brought his eyes to her face. "What is it like to have the extra eyes?"

Arachne chuckled as Jon's hands quickly covered his mouth at the insensitive question that he had just asked. "It is different than what I am used to in this body but not so different than how I viewed the world in the time since I was cursed. Do they bother you?"

Jon's hands dropped from his face as he tilted his head to the side to consider her face. "With all of the crazy and unbelievable things that I have seen over the last few months, it will take more than that to bother me. Though, others may not feel the same way."

"Can you conceal them?" Arachne asked, genuinely curious about what Jon was able to do with magic.

"I have never done something like that," Jon admitted while rubbing his left arm with his right sheepishly. "I could cast an illusion to prevent others from seeing them but if the illusion was broken for whatever reason then they would be visible to any who saw you."

"Do you know of any other magic that could offer a more permanent solution?" Arachne stepped closer to Jon and leaned forward so their faces were mere inches apart.

Jon's breath caught at the sudden closeness and his eyes traveled from the two normally positioned eyes to her lips for a moment before back up to the other eyes on her forehead. "I have been able to travel into the skin of my direwolf using Alteration magic. Though warging is only temporary, it seems more likely that Alteration magic would offer a solution than Destruction, Conjuration, Illusion or Restoration magic."

"So can you do it?"

"As I am right now, I doubt it." Jon shook his head causing a disappointed look to appear on Arachne's face. "But if what you say is true and time truly does not move within this place then it seems that I may be able to train up my magic to be able to do such a thing."

"I do not understand why you would not just do it now." Arachne took a step backwards to put some distance between her and Jon. "Do you think I need to remember that I am a monster?"

"No, no, no! That's not it at all," Jon tried to reassure her. "I don't know what the spell is, or that one even exists, but I can manipulate magic to do my bidding. I used this ability earlier to cast the light that drew you to me but doing so costs much more magic than using a spell that I already knew. I didn't have a chance to figure out how much more magic it costs to learn a spell this way but I would guess that it is at least five times more magic than cast a spell that I have learned already."

"How much training would you need to be able to try doing something like this?"

Should I tell her about the Stargaryan Ring? She's told me about herself to an extent but I have no idea what her goals may be. What if we leave here and she decides that she does not want anything to do with me? I don't want knowledge of the ring to be spread throughout the world if she chooses to follow a different path.

Quest Alert! Eyes on the Prize
Main Objective: Assist Arachne in altering her appearance so she can travel through the world unmolested by those that would fear someone that looked different than themselves.
Quest Rewards for Completion: 1,000,000 experience, Weaver Silk Under Armor set, Unlock Broken Treasure quest, gain Arachne as companion, Spell Tome: ?.
Quest Penalties for Failure: Having been temporarily overcome by you magic, the Old God's curse will strengthen to the point that it cannot be broken again, forever causing Arachne to lose herself to the spider that you have held at bay.

1,000,000 experience?! That's as much experience as the Return to Winterfell quest. If that wasn't enough to make me accept, I wouldn't be able to live with myself knowing that I didn't do everything that I could to prevent Arachne from having to spend the rest of her days as a monstrous spider. Jon thought to himself before accepting the quest and responding."That's tough to say. If I had to guess, I imagine that I would need to almost double my total magical reserves."

Arachne let out a deep breath that Jon had not realized she was holding. "Then let's see what is calling to me and get to training."

Jon nodded and gestured for her to lead on. Lead, she did. Though they fell quiet while they walked the length of the room the silence was far from awkward since they had reached an agreement on their immediate plans.

When they reached the end of the room, she waved her hand at an especially dense section of webbing causing it to disintegrate and reveal a staircase that wound up until it was no longer visible despite the torches that provided much more light than was present in the previous chamber.

After a brief look shared by Jon and Arachne, she stepped onto the staircase and started climbing. Jon thanked the gods that had blessed him with such a view as he was given the perfect reason to watch the way the muscles of her legs and butt contracted with each step she took.

Since she was focused on the task of climbing, Jon felt confident that he could adjust himself in his cuisse without her thinking that he was doing anything untoward or inappropriate. Of course, as soon as he reached down to adjust, she angled her head over her right shoulder and caught him in the act with his hand gripping his stiff member with the eyes on her temple.

"It's not what it looked like," Jon started as he took the next few steps quickly in an attempt to catch up to her and reassure her.

When he spoke, she stopped moving causing Jon to run into her in his haste. Though both of them remained upright, the brief collision was enough to cause his hardness to rub against the exposed flesh of her bottom.

"Your words say one thing but your body says another. Though I should be offended, it is so refreshing to smell anything other than fear coming from a man after all of this time that I will forgive you."

"I meant no offense," Jon tried to explain only to be cut off.

"I'm sure that you didn't. I told you this was only meant to be seen by my husband. You had the exact reaction that was intended. Though, I would have your name if you are going to be carrying on in such a way."

She would have my name? Surely, she can't mean she would take my name? Maybe she just wants to know my name. That must be it, we covered a lot about her but somehow we missed that.

"I'm waiting," Arachne had crossed her arms and was tapping her foot.

"Jon. Jon Snow."

"See unlike some things, that wasn't so hard." Arachne said as she resumed climbing and curled her finger towards Jon in a gesture for him to follow.

Jon quickly finished his adjustment and was rewarded by Arachne shaking her hips as they both fell into another companionable silence.

After enough steps to get to the tallest tower at Winterfell, the pair had reached a landing with a door that was curiously absent of the webbing that had been so present throughout the rest of the cave.

"Is it locked?" Jon asked gesturing toward the door.

"Perhaps," Arachne acknowledged before her left hand rose to run her fingers against the pulsating gem on her throat. "I don't think it will be a problem, the magic feels the same."

She reached out her right hand while keeping her left on the gem and touched the handle. This caused a scraping sound followed by the heavy thud of a lock being drawn before she turned the handle and was able to push the door open with little resistance.

As they entered the room, Jon was struck as he noticed a surprising similarity to the Maester Luwin's room in Winterfell. There was a large desk, covered in parchment on the wall to the left of the entrance that had a heavy door to its right. Further from Jon's vantage point, on the other side of the heavy door next to the desk, nestled in the far left corner of the room was a bed with a heavy trunk at its foot. A shelf filled with books spanned the rest of the distance from the trunk to the wall and continued along the right wall all the way to the fireplace which was immediately opposite the door. In the corner closes to the door were two large chairs that looked like they had not been used in quite some time, with a small table in easy reach in front of them.

Arachne did not comment on the contents of the room. Instead, she moved to the trunk and bent over to examine the latch, inadvertently giving Jon a view that he was sure to remember until the final breath left his body.

"It's locked," she said simply while lifting a heavy deadbolt in her slender hand.

"Can you open it the same way that you opened the door?"

She toughed the gem and with her left hand again but this time there was no effect as the lock remained resolutely closed. "It's not working."

"There's got to be a key around here somewhere." Jon moved over to the desk and sorted through the paperwork leaving a nice stack when he was through but not revealing the key to the trunk. "It's not over here and there must be over a thousand books on the shelves that could hide a key."

Arachne heaved a heavy sigh as she put her hands on her knees and pushed herself into a standing position. "Something in this trunk is calling to me… but I suppose it's waited this long and can wait a little bit longer."

"Right, well let's see what we have in these books and get to training."

"How will reading help with your magical reserves?" Arachne asked with a puzzled expression on her face.

"Have you ever heard of mysticism?" Arachne shook her head to indicate that she had not. "Well mysticism helps me to recover magic after I have used it. So far the best way I have found to develop my mysticism has been reading to increase my intelligence."

"Many things may have changed since I was cursed but, in my time, a well-read fool was still a fool."

Jon laughed at her comment. "That's a good point. Fortunately, I am not like most fools"

"That remains to be seen," Arachne gestured at the bed. "There is only one bed and what man who is not a fool would get into a bed with a vicious spider that almost ate him once before?"

"Eh, that is a good point." Jon rubbed the back of his head with his left hand. "Let's focus on training for the moment; we can cross that bridge when we come to it."

Arachne smiled widely, showing her fangs. "Are you sure that you don't want to try your luck? You seemed so eager earlier when I was using my mouth to suck out the poisoning and when we were walking up the stairs"

Jon shook his head after a moment of contemplation. "You were a human before the curse and, even if the spider is still a part of you, I still consider you to be a human now. Even if there are some… rather unique elements to your anatomy right now."

Arachne's smile fell and her eyes went wide before they became glassy as she started to tear up. "Thank you, Jon."

"Until you prove me wrong, I will continue to think about you in this way."

"Just… thank you."

"You're welcome." Jon was suddenly uncomfortable about the emotionally vulnerable woman in front of him. "You mentioned that you knew of healing magic. Could you teach me?"

All of Arachne's eyes closed as she nodded her head. She moved towards him and voiced her confirmation. "The spell is simple enough. Focus on whatever you want to heal. Wait until you feel your magic rise. Then say the spell. Heal."

Arachne had lifted her right hand so it was hovering just over the tender skin on Jon's neck. When she said 'Heal' a green light was emitted from her hand and Jon immediately felt relief at the site where Arachne's fangs had pierced his skin when she was in her spider form.

"Now you try," Arachne prompted as she turned around to expose her back which still bore the telltale signs of their earlier battle.

Jon did as instructed and raised his hands so they were hovering just over Arachne's back while channeling his magic. Though he had not learned the spell from a book, Arachne's instruction was sufficient that he did not need to depend on Magical Manipulation to cast the spell.

"Heal," Jon called as the same green light that had radiated from Arachne's hands a moment before now flooded from Jon's hands. He heard a sharp intake of breath by Arachne but he kept pushing his magic into the heal spell in an attempt to undo the damage that he had done to her body as he saw a notification pop up.

Restoration: Heal +1000
Heal: Restores 10 health points per second after being cast. Spell cost 12 MP per second when used by the caster on him or herself. Spell cost 15 MP per second when used to heal another.

"That's enough," Arachne declared as she stepped away from Jon which allowed him to see that he was successful in his attempt to heal the red reminders of where his sword had struck her not so long ago. "You must be more in tune with your magic than I had initially suspected to get such a result on your first try with the spell."

"My life has been pretty eventful since I discovered magic. I've been working to develop my abilities since then." Jon tried to downplay what he had been able to accomplish since his initial discovery. "Do you know any other spells?"

"I wish that I did, if only so I could pass them on to you. Unfortunately, the knowledge of the more advanced spells was guarded jealously in my time. That is the only spell that I know."

"That's fine," Jon assured her with a grin as he moved to the shelf nearest his current position. "That leaves us more time to go through these books and find the key to the trunk."

That was how the search began. Initially, Jon was just pulling books from the shelf and discarding them after a brief shake but, on a whim, he glanced at the contents of the book that he had just picked up. What he saw reminded him that there was more to the ancient tomes than merely the chance that they hid the key to the trunk that so fascinated Arachne.

"Hold on," Jon called out to Arachne who had started her own search of the books shelved closest to the trunk. "There is much knowledge contained within these books and having to go through them twice won't save us any time when all is said and done. I am unsure how long it will take me to increase my magic to the necessary amount to cast the Alteration spell that we discussed earlier. If you see any spells in those books or anything about combat, stealth and evasion, alchemy, smithing or enchanting then please set the books aside."

Arachne raised her eyebrow quizzically. "Are there any other topics that would interest you? There could be tales of unrequited love, star-crossed lovers or chance encounters that ring two people together in the unlikeliest of circumstances. Wouldn't you be interested in those as well?"

Her words made Jon's own eyebrow rise. "I hadn't thought about it but yes, I suppose that there could be something like that among these books. Usually I look for the books that deal in the subjects that I have some training."

"Am I to believe that you have no training in the matters of love?"

Jon gave her his best approximation of a roguish grin. "Weren't you just cautioning me against sharing a bed with you?"

The remark elicited a sweet, joyful laugh from Arachne. "Maybe you are not so much a fool as I had initially suspected. Even if your reaction when faced with a dangerous situation leaves much to be desired when it comes to rational thinking, you may not be as foolish as most men would be if they found themselves in your situation."

Jon's eyes roved over her body before shifting towards the bed as he assessed his situation. "Yes, well we are here for a reason. Letting myself be distracted won't help in accomplishing our goal."

Arachne quirked her head at his explanation but did not respond as she bent down to shuffle through the books that she had initially discarded and sort them into two piles. The first, much larger pile, Jon assumed contained the books that had nothing to do with the subjects that he had specified. The second, Jon hoped would be like those books held by Maester Luwin that had been such a boon to him when he first started on his scholastic journey.

Taking his cue from Arachne, Jon began a similar sorting process. As time passed, the only thing that marked its passing was the thud of leather binding softly thudding against leather binding and the rustling of pages turning.

Jon looked at the piles of books that had accumulated. Though there were many books that seemed to contain information on interesting topics, there were far fewer that held information related to Jon's stats. Those were the books that he was truly interested in finding.

After setting down the last book from the fifth shelf that he had cleared out, Jon sighed deeply. "That's enough of that, I think if I have to pick up another book it will be the end of me."

Arachne seemed to be a little put off that he was calling off the search for the key so early but she obliged. "I suppose you're right."

"Don't trouble yourself; there will be plenty of time to continue the search later."

"Yes, but…" Arachne started to protest.

"But there are other things to do," Jon interrupted. "Earlier, I found a way to train my magic that is pretty quick and you should be able to help with. Do you know how to handle any weapons?"

"I busied myself with my needlework. I never really had an interest in weapons."

"Well, the training method that I discovered will require you to try and strike me."

"I'd rather not," Arachne looked less than pleased with Jon's request. "I'm not really much of a fighter."

"Hmm," Jon considered. "That could slow things down a bit. If only there were more of the Fanged Weavers here…"

"I could call more if you'd like."

"How would you do that?"

"Umm, I don't really know how I would do it. I just have a feeling that they would come if I called."

"Alright, well let's go back downstairs to give it a try. If this is to be our living quarters, I would prefer it if we kept the beasts out."

"Scared?" Arachne's eyes shone with mirth as she bared her fangs.

"Of those Fanged Weavers that I encountered earlier? Hardly, it's just that killing them can be a messy business and I imagine the smell wouldn't be the greatest in the world."

Arachne's smile widened at Jon's comment and she brought her hands to her face in an exaggerated swooning motion. "Oh, what a sweetheart, you are. Already concerning yourself with my comfort?"

"Yeah, let's go with that," Jon tried another roguish grin. "That was certainly what I was thinking about."

"If that's the case, let's go and get you acquainted with some eight-legged creatures that would just love to eat you. Oh, pardon me! Of course I meant to say eight-legged creatures that would just love to meet you."

The pair left the room and went down to the chamber where they first met. Rather than depending on the far off light of the torch, Jon cast a Light which earned him 500 experience before it trailed them to the middle of the chamber where Arachne abruptly stopped.

"The curse should still be strong enough that any of the Weavers that I summon should leave me alone if I'm not directly in the spiders' line of sight. I'll move towards the wall to leave you by yourself under that ball of light. Just call when you're ready and I can summon as many spiders as you want."

"Let's just start with three. They aren't particularly strong but I'll have to evade them when I run out of magic and don't want any of them getting the drop on me when my light fails."

"Your reasoning is sound. I'm not certain that I would be able to send them away once they have determined that you are weakening," Arachne nodded as she walked away becoming a mere silhouette leaning against the wall. "Just let me know when you are ready."

"Alright, let's do this. Three spiders won't be that much of a problem. Go ahead and call them."

A high pitch shriek pierced the relative silence of the chamber before quickly fading away and being replaced by the staccato tapping that Jon had come to associate with the scuttling legs of a spider.

I intended to train when I left the camp and it looks like I'm going to get more training in than I had any reason to suspect. Jon thought to himself before the first Fanged Weaver came into view and launched itself at him.

As it had happened before, Jon raised a magic ward as soon as the spider leapt at him. This caused it to bounce away, harmlessly, to the floor. Its compatriots were not idle and it took far less time for Jon's magic to deplete than it did when he had faced off against a single spider.

When his magic was depleted, he quickly dispatched of the spiders with his advanced sword skills before walking over to Arachne to let her know that he would need a short rest to recover his magic before he would be able to resume the training.

Though Arachne looked towards the door that would lead her to the room that housed the trunk that she had felt such a drawing toward she agreed to wait with Jon as his magic regenerated.

After his magic was fully restored, Jon gave her the confirmation that he was ready as he cast a new Light and she summoned more spiders to begin the process again before leaving the room to resume her search.

Again, the spiders made short work of Jon's magical reserves with their tenacious attacks and he shortly found himself having to end the creatures' existences.

Fanged Weaver Venom (12)
Weaver Silk (48)
Conjuration: Light +500
Restoration: Magic Ward +68,000
Evasion +4800
One Handed +2400

Since there was nothing left for Jon in the chamber, he walked back to the room to find Arachne sorting through the remaining books on the shelf that she had started earlier. Jon cast a glance towards the trunk and found that it was still closed with the lock firmly in place and found himself yawning.

At the sound of Jon yawning, Arachne turned her attention from the books to Jon and spoke. "If you're tired feel free to take the bed. I'll join you later but I want to get this finished."

"You'll join me later," Jon was struck by the casual way that she made the statement. "Umm, I…"

"Don't worry your pretty little head. I'll be good," Arachne said with a reassuring smile. "At least for tonight."

"Right," Jon agreed to push the conflicting thoughts of what she was referring to out of his head while moving to the bed and beginning to disrobe. Cloak, pauldrons, jerkin, belt, boots, greaves and cuisse were removed and stored in Jon's inventory leaving him in his undershorts causing Arachne to tilt her head in an unspoken question before she shook her head and resumed her search. Jon got into the bed and pulled the cover over him with a surprised look on his face due to how comfortable the bed was before he spoke again. "Good night Arachne, don't stay up too late."

"Good night, Jon." Arachne answered sultrily. "Don't let the bed bugs bite."

AN3: Rest assured, for better or worse, the Arachne quest will be wrapped up next chapter. The other story lines that have come to exist since leaving Winterfell will wrap up and Jon will be getting back to the castle VERY soon. It was recommended by Reviwer543 that I call out that I don't own Percy Jackson as I have incorporated a character named Arachne but my inspiration for her is the mythological Arachne rather than the interpretation in Percy Jackson. Either way, I do not claim the rights to the character. If you liked it, please review and I'll try to get the next chapter out asap!