AN: Prior to this chapter, the story stats have been pretty humbling to me. 616 reviews, 253,181 views, 25 communities, 1,705 Favorites and 2,039 Follows. Just wow. Thank you to everyone who has taken time to read this story! Your support is what brings me back to writing even when the world tries to pull me away from my laptop. Apologies for the delay, I hope you enjoy the new chapter.

Despite the somewhat ominous warning that he received from Arachne before surrendering to the darkness of sleep, Jon slept well and awoke feeling quite refreshed. The comfortable pressure on his chest told him that Arachne had indeed come to bed at some point while he was asleep. He angled his chin down towards his chest to view what was pressing on his chest.

Immediately, he saw Arachne's lilac hair angled in such a way that it covered the eyes on the left side of her face while three of the four eyes on the right side of her face stared up at him. All three of the eyes that he could see were focused on his face but she did not comment on either her position or Jon's eyes falling on her.

He noted the way that her nose cast a small shadow on her face that seemed to add to the dark mystique of her appearance. The corners of her mouth were slightly upturned in the faintest approximation of a smile and her skin seemed paler than ever.

Though he would claim that it was accidental, his gaze traveled over the alabaster skin of her shoulder, down the curve of her back to finally rest upon the pale orbs of flesh that the small strip of fabric along her hips did nothing to conceal. A goofy smile spread across Jon's face at the sight that Arachne had presented to him before a light thump on his chest brought his attention back to Arachne's face.

"If you have gotten your eye full then I believe it's time for us to resume your training."

"Er, yes. We should get back to training." Jon agreed with a vigorous nod of his head. "Did you find the key?"

"I did."

"Alright," Jon shared his enthusiasm. "Well what was in the trunk that was calling to you?"

"You'll see when we leave. I believe that you will prefer it that way."

"How long have I been asleep?" Jon asked before the second thought strayed into his mind. "When did you finally come to bed?"

"It is difficult to tell time here but, I'd say, you were asleep almost four hours before I joined you. Then you slept for a similar amount of time after I got into the bed with you."

"Wait, how would you know that? Didn't you sleep?"

"After so much time spent locked in my own mind by the Old One's curse, I did not want to waste the first night in my human body by sleeping."

"So you just watched me sleep?"

"It was either I watch you sleep or I eat you up and the second option didn't really seem like it would help me leave this place."

"Glad I can be of service to you," Jon rolled his eyes before accessing his inventory and equipping his clothes which caused Arachne's eyes to widen comically.

"What magic is this?"

"If you can keep the contents of the trunk to yourself until we leave then I'll keep the answer to that question to myself, as well."

Arachne huffed before playfully thumping Jon's chest and using him to help her push off the bed to a standing position. "If that is how you wish to proceed then I won't press you for the answer now. I stacked all of the books with the subjects that you mentioned over there," Arachne gestured toward a neat pile of books that was sitting on the desk.

"Thank you," Jon voiced his appreciation as he threw his legs over the side of the bed and stood. Though he followed her lead in keeping his thoughts on the matter to himself, Jon had a suspicion that Arachne was well aware of how her presence in the bed with him, and the sight of her perfectly proportioned body in such a revealing garment, affected him.

Jon turned his body slightly to hide the adjustment that he was making to his cuisse and he could have sworn he caught a smile on Arachne's face before he turned his attention to the collection of books that she had set aside for him. A few steps brought his fingers into contact with the spines of the books that had been arrayed for him.

Breathing Water and Spitting Fire, Daughter of the Old Ones, Sithis and the Many Faced God, The Lunar Conspiracy, Father of the Niben, The Gold Ribbon of Merit, Vernaccus and Bourlor, Battle of the Fields of Fire, Death Blow of Abernanit, The Black Mirror, The Warrior's Warrior, Frostfall: The Coming of Winter, The Great Hearth, Bridges in the Sky, The Warrior's Charge into Doom: The Fall of Ziggimus Zaggurat, Treacherous Destruction, Horror in Asshai, Mystery of the Landing, The Terror of War, Twin Secrets, The Seven Knights of the Faith, The Dawn of the Red Dragon's Tail, Ice and Chitin, The Red Dragon Takeover and the Flight of the Black Dragon, Surfeit of Thieves, The Werequeen, Morning Star, Fighting Fire and Darkness, Mace Etiquette, A Bastard's victory over a King, The Importance of Where, The Exodus, Sacred Witness, Three Thieves, A Dance with Fire, and The Strike of the King.

When Jon's finger grazed over the last book title, he made the decision to add the books to his inventory rather than cracking them open and experiencing them right away. He couldn't quite explain it but, unlike when he had encountered such books during his tutelage with Maester Luwin, he could feel the magic emanating from the books. It was almost as if it called to him. Nevertheless, he stored the books in his inventory

"Thank you for getting the books together for me; though only about half of them deal with magic, they will all be very helpful to me."

"If you say so," Arachne appeared doubtful but she did not voice any concerns. "Will you need me to summon more spiders for you?"

Jon made a fist with his right hand and dropped it into the palm of his left hand. "No, I don't think that will be necessary right now. I am at a good place with my Restoration magic right now. I need to get my Conjuration, Alteration and Illusion magics up to the same level."

"Alright, well how will you do that?"

"That is a good question. I don't know many Conjuration or Alteration spells. I was hoping that there would be some spell books in this room to help with that. As far as Conjuration goes, the only spell that I know is the Light spell that I figured out earlier. Alteration is even tougher as the only Alteration spell I know is my ability to Warg but I have only been able to Warg into my Direwolf so far."

"What do you mean when you say that you have been able to Warg into your Direwolf?" Arachne moved to stand immediately in front of Jon as she asked the question with a nonverbal gesture to indicate that she would not budge in demanding an explanation and let Jon get away without explaining the ability. "I have not heard of the term, Warg, before."

"When I Warg into Ghost, it's like my mind somehow goes into his body."

Arachne bared her fangs menacingly. "You lock his mind away and take control of his body from him? How could you do such a thing?"

Jon shook his head and reached to comfort her only for her to jerk her arm away as she took a step backwards. Her eyes seemed to glow with her indignation and Jon knew that he would have to start talking if he wanted to avoid an encounter with the giant spider that had tried to kill him not so long ago. "I would never lock Ghost's mind away! Ghost is my friend and when I Warg into him, it is more like us sharing his body. I can feel him there and he can still control his body, if he wants to, though usually he lets me be in control."

Some of the anger seemed to dissipate from Arachne's eyes but she was still looking at Jon suspiciously. "It sounds too much like the curse of the Old One to me. I ask that you do not do that around me."

"Of course," Jon readily agreed while holding his hands wide-open, away from his body, in an attempt to show his sincerity.

The rest of the tension seemed to leave Arachne's body at Jon's reassurance. "Thank you, Jon."

"I'll stick to conjuration for now and, hopefully, I'll either be able to figure out a different Alteration spell or there will be something in the books that will help me."

Arachne merely nodded at Jon's plan. "Do you have any idea how you will be able to train in Conjuration magic if the only spell you know is the Light spell?"

"I was thinking about that. The normal Light spell just hovers above me but, I have a feeling, I could control the light and cause it to move where I want it to go. Since that would be directly manipulating the magic, I think there would be benefit in the effort. If that doesn't work, maybe I could increase and decrease the brightness of the light. Who knows, maybe I'll do both if both options work for me."

Arachne nodded before asking, "How many of those lights can you make at the same time?"

"I don't rightly know," Jon admitted while running his hand through his hair. "I have only tried to make one at a time so far."

"You should see if you can make more than one at a time when we get downstairs." Arachne was halfway out the door as she gave her suggestion.

Jon hastened to follow her and shortly found himself in the chamber. Raising both hands so his palms were parallel to his body, Jon channeled his magic towards both of his palms and called out "Light."

In an instant, the room was illuminated by the two balls of light which were hovering next to each other in front of Jon's outstretched hands. Focusing on the magical connection that he felt between the two balls of light, Jon moved his hands away from each other and caused the balls to separate to a much further degree than he had anticipated.

The experience notifications that he was seeing confirmed that the training method was working but he chose to ignore them in favor of maintaining his hold on the magic. Instead, he opened and closed his arms, reveling in the feeling of connectedness with his magic. He continued moving the balls of light until he ran out of magic and they faded away.

Conjuration: Light +9250

"Well that was certainly impressive." Arachne commented when the light had faded away. "I can't help but think it would be more impressive if you were not waving your arms around like you were possessed while controlling the lights. Do you think that you could do it without all of the arm waving?"

Jon contemplated the feeling of the magical connection between him and the balls of light after he had cast the spells. "Yeah, I think I could. After I cast the spells, I felt how they linked to my magic through my arms. Having done that, I think I could probably hold onto that connection without moving my arms, if I had to."

"Alright, then let's say that you have to the next time that you cast the spells. Maybe it will help you even more."

"It's worth a shot," Jon agreed with a nod of his head. "Now we just have 17 minutes to kill until my magic regenerates and I am able to resume the training."

"How could you possibly know that it would take that much time for your magic to be restored?"

"Just trust me when I say that it falls into the same category as what happened with the books earlier."

The smile fell away from Arachne's face leaving a very neutral expression like one would see on a mask. "I see. There is much more to you than meets the eyes, isn't there, Jon Snow?"

"Perhaps there is but let us focus on you. You can call spiders that do your bidding but do not have much in the way of fighting skills if someone manages to get past those spiders. While my magic regenerates, how about we work on getting you comfortable with a sword?"

"I haven't got a sword, if you haven't noticed," Arachne spun on the ball of her foot in a quick circle to remind Jon that she had no place to conceal such a weapon. "But if you have a spare and are quite insistent then I will consent to your teachings. Before you, none of the men that found this cave were able to hold back the Old One's curse."

Jon removed a sword from his inventory and spun it around quickly to readjust his grip so he could hand it to her, pommel first. "I would be honored to assist you with your swordplay."

"Just like that?" Arachne asked as she took the sword and gave it an experimental swing.

"Just like that," Jon confirmed. "I wouldn't have offered if I hadn't been willing to follow through. Plus, if it is between this and reading those books, it seems like this is the more likely option to make the most out of the time. When I read, I tend to get absorbed by what I'm reading. Usually this is not a problem but being absorbed in something right now could mean missing when my magic regenerates and slowing my training with Conjuration magic."

"How could you possibly become so engaged in your reading material that you would lose track of your surroundings?"

"It's like I'm inside the story, like I'm there as the tale plays out." Jon answered with a shrug. "Anyway, let's see what you can do now that you have a sword."

Arachne did not require additional coaxing as she lunged forward and attacked with quick, poorly executed slashes that Jon had no trouble blocking. Though her technique left much to be desired, Jon was pleased to see the strength of limb and the quickness in her strikes. He doubted that she would ever be able to match the power that some swordsmen could put into their blows but he valued her quickness much more than he would have valued pure strength.

"Alright, alright," Jon spoke while catching her blade with his own. "That's enough for now. Try not to overextend yourself so much when you are striking. Think short, quick strikes rather than long sweeping ones."

Arachne nodded with a slight huff. "Are you going to practice you magic again?"

"Yes, I was able to recover my magic while we were sparring. So now, it's back to Conjuration training."

The pair went through the training routine a total of five times before Jon called a stop to their swordplay session to indicate that his magic had fully regenerated. He had been ignoring the experience notifications during his training but wanted to see how he had progressed so far, so he allowed the notifications to appear.

Conjuration: Light +37,000
Blocking +120,000
Evasion +12,500

"Mission accomplished," Jon proclaimed proudly as he reviewed his stats. "Hello level ten Conjuration magic."

Arachne quirked her head to the side while looking at him out of the corners of her eyes. "Level ten conjuration magic? What are you talking about?"

Jon sighed and ran a hand through his wavy hair, pushing his locks out of his eyes. "It's probably an explanation better left for later but, essentially, I can tell how proficient I am with magic."

"Alright but what does the level mean?" Arachne's side-eyed look turned quizzical. "Does that mean you are ten times better than you were at level one?"

Jon opened his mouth to respond but then closed it for a moment in consideration before responding. "I don't think that it works like that. Mostly the level is about experience. I think that casting the Light spell would provide the same amount of light if the caster was at level one or level ten but as you become more experienced with the spell you gain more control over it. You saw me controlling the lights in my training. If I wanted, I believe that I could do more than just control the location of the light. I could control the intensity of the light or use the spell as a part of more complex magic."

Arachne's brow furrowed as she contemplated his words. "If you can be as effective with a spell at level one as you can be at level ten, even if you may not have as much fine control, then why would you spend time trying to increase your level?"

To make sure that I pass the Return to Winterfell quest and don't miss out on any of the potential rewards, Jon thought to himself. "For me, it's about the experience. Even if a spell may not be more effective, per se, at level ten than it is at level one, gaining the experience is well worth the time that I have to spend to level up the skill."

"Do most people in this time think that way?" Arachne asked while drawing her arms across her body to grip her elbows, inadvertently drawing Jon's attention to her scantily clad bust.

Jon chuckled at the thought of himself being considered normal in any way, especially after obtaining the Stargaryan Ring. "I don't think so. Though experience is respected by most people, I'm pretty sure that the way that most people think of experience is well outside of what would be considered normal."

Arachne's eyes traveled up and down Jon's body as she considered his response. "There are times when normal can be acceptable. I wish I was more normal when the Old One made her challenge. If I was then I wouldn't have been cursed and trapped in this place for so long."

Jon had not expected this turn in the conversation so he was slightly hesitant to respond but eventually he said, "Aye, there are times when it seems like being normal may be for the best but, when it comes down to it, I think that I would rather not be normal if it meant that I had to deny a part of myself."

"If I was more normal, I wouldn't have even considering accepting a stranger's weaving challenge," Arachne asserted as her eyes moved beyond Jon as if she was staring into the past. "I could have spent my days with those that I cared about rather than locked in my own mind while the curse that took control of my body caused the deaths of countless souls that were unfortunate enough to cross my path."

Jon looked down and kicked out with one of his legs in a distracted manner as he considered her response. "That may be true but, if you were normal, then we never would have met."

Jon's words broke Arachne from her reverie. "That would have been unfortunate," she said almost inaudibly.

Unfortunately, for Arachne, Jon heard her words. "It would have been unfortunate?"

All of Arachne's eyes widened as she clearly had not intended for Jon to hear her words. She quickly removed the genuine smile that had been threatening to spread across her face and replaced it with a look that conveyed hunger. "It would be absolutely unfortunate. The adventurers who think that they are special taste so much better than the run of the mill adventurers."

The sight of Arachne's tongue tracing the sharp teeth in her mouth undermined the initial connotation of her words and caused Jon to shiver slightly at the thought of the predator that this scantily clad woman could turn into if he was so unfortunate as to arouse her anger. "At least he the curse did not take your life."

Arachne's eyes snapped sharply to Jon. "The curse did not take my life, you say? All that I knew, all who I loved are gone. I am the only thing left. It's just me and the curse now."

"You don't have to be alone," Jon tried to appeal to the part of Arachne that was clearly feeling the loss of all that she held dear. "I can't pretend that I can replace all that you have lost but you are welcome to venture with me when we get out of this cave."

Arachne seemed to realize that she was projecting the anger and frustration over her loss onto Jon and collected herself before responding. "Thank you, Jon Snow. As melodramatic as it may seem, you are all that I know in this world now. I'm not promising anything but, once you finish your training and we get out of here, I may just take you up on your offer."

Sensing that a change of subject was in order, Jon tried to shift the focus from all that had been lost to Arachne as a result of the curse. "I hope you will. Speaking of training, at this point it is between Alteration and Illusion magic. Since Warg is the only Alteration spell that I know, it seems like Illusion magic is up next for training."

Arachne just nodded before lowering herself to the ground and sitting with her legs crossed. Jon tried his best to feign nonchalance as his eyes were drawn from the slight bounce of her chest as she landed on the floor to the almost immodest strip of fabric that was flanked by alabaster skin between her legs. Apparently Jon was not as discreet as he had thought as he had tried to convince himself that he was being as Arachne cleared her throat pointedly. "Thank you again for not asking me to conjure spiders for you to control through the Warg magic. What Illusion magic do you know?"

Jon grimaced at her clear disdain for something that Jon considered to be completely natural between him and Ghost before thinking of the Illusion magic that he had learned. "Not much," he admitted. "At this point I only know two Illusion spells. One is Calm, which was able to disrupt the curse that the Old One had cast on you. The other is Magical Distortion which is a very useful spell that doesn't seem to have very many limits, other than the amount of magic of the caster, from what I have seen so far."

"So the reason you aren't using the Magical Distortion to help me get out of this cave is because it would fade once you run out of magic?" Arachne asked while tossing her head to get the lilac bangs that had fallen in front of her eyes out of her face. "Well get to it. I've been here far too long and I am ready to get out into the world and see what has changed since I was first bound by the curse."

While Jon was slightly unnerved by the six red eyes that were focused directly on him but he managed to nod. "Alright then, I'll practice the Magical Distortion. Is there anything that you would like to see?"

Arachne just smirked…

Illusion: Magical Distortion +18,000

Blocking +1,500
Evasion +2,100

Jon just shook his head while trying to get the most recent scene that Arachne had asked to see from his mind. Arachne's Illusion requests were every bit as depraved as her clothing choices. Now he had level ten Illusion magic and a level ten threat of winter coming in his pants. "You know, I didn't expect you to get so graphic when I asked you what you wanted to see."

Arachne had the decency to blush even as she stared back at him defiantly. "You asked if there was anything that I wanted to see, knowing that I had been locked in my mind for ages longer than you have even been alive. From your looks, I would say that your hunger matches mine in this particular domain. What did you expect me to ask to see?"

"I don't know, your family or the place you lived or anything but that," Jon tried to voice his incredulity but the way that Arachne's eyes narrowed indicated that he had struck a nerve.

"Just because we have spent some time together in this place, don't presume to know anything of what I had to leave behind to be here now."

Jon shook his head to negate her words before speaking, "I am sorry for what the curse did to you." Arachne took a deep breath to compose herself and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them a second later the majority of the hostility seemed to have drained from them. "I just wanted you to know that when we get out of her that, if you don't want to, you don't necessarily have to go out on your own."

Arachne rose from her cross-legged position and stood from the place on the ground that she had claimed before Jon had started practicing the Magical Distortion. The lethargic pace reinforced in Jon's mind just how much the physical training the two of them had done while Jon was recuperating from the Conjuration and Illusion magic had taken on her.

When she regained her footing, Arachne looked at Jon appraisingly before deigning to respond. "It's been a long day. I wouldn't want you to say anything that you may regret later. Let's go upstairs ad call it a night."

Trying to withhold his surprise, Jon took the proffered hand and allowed the scantily-clad woman with eight eyes and a nasty side that manifested as a giant spider to lead him back to the quarters beyond the chamber that he had recommissioned for his training purposes.

"I didn't mean to suggest…" Jon started as they made it back to the living quarters but he was cut off by Arachne who put a finger to his lips to silence him.

"I know that you didn't, Jon Snow. Still, whether you meant to or not, it does not mean that I am ready to consider such things at the current time. In my time it would have been entirely untoward for a young man to ask an unmarried to travel with him without a chaperone. Is this not the case now?"

For a second, Jon considered bending the truth and telling her that such a thing was no longer considered to be out of the ordinary. However, he could not help but think of how he would feel if Arya had been goaded into accepting a challenge that she was convinced that she could win only to have her victory turn to defeat when her victory turned to ash in her mouth when the challenger revealed their true power.

"To be honest, such a thing is still not regular in this time." Jon plopped down on the bed and brought both of his hands to hold his head as he stared at the floor. "I just thought that it was better than the alternative, you going out into the world on your own."

Jon did not move his gaze from the floor though he heard Arachne's movement. When he felt the sudden pressure on the bed and the warm body pressed to his right side, Jon had to turn his head in that direction.

Arachne was sitting as close to Jon as she could be without being on top of him. The pale skin of her thigh was a stark contrast to the black of his cuisse. Jon's eyes traveled from floor to thigh, up a flat and exposed stomach to an almost exposed bust and finally reached Arachne's eyes.

Though a glint in her eyes told him that she knew that he had gone sightseeing before meeting her eyes, her only response to his appraisal was a knowing smirk. After his eyes made contact with hers, she finally spoke what was on her mind. "You did not make that offer to demean or belittle me. You had to choose between two less than desirable options and you chose the one that would be easiest for me."

"I hadn't thought about it quite like that," Jon admitted. "I just tried to put myself in your shoes and I know that if I found myself in a strange place that I had never been that I would hope that the first person that I met did not leave me on my own."

Arachne sighed and slumped forward, catching her head in her hands causing a curtain of hair to fall between her and Jon. The pair sat in silence for several minutes until Arachne pulled her head from her hands and flipped her hair so that her burning gaze fell on Jon before she spoke again. "I have been trapped here inside the body of a monster for more time than you could even begin to imagine. In that time everything that I knew slipped away. Even if some people may think it improper for us to travel together, you are all that I know in this world. You are the person who was able to break through the curse and I would feel much better facing whatever is out there waiting for me if we did not part ways when we leave this place."

"Then it's settled," Jon grinned as the words left his mouth and, in a moment of boldness, he raised his right arm and draped it across Arachne's shoulder to pull her to his side. "When we get out of here you will come with me on my travels. We'll meet up with Ysolda, Ygritte and the Free Folk and we'll finally go back to Winterfell."

Though the look on her face seemed to indicate that she considered protesting Jon's action, Arachne instead chose to question his statement. "Are Ysolda and Ygritte the names of your women?"

Jon felt a blush heat his cheeks. "I don't know that they would like it if I was to introduce them as 'my women.' I met Ygritte first when the Free Folk came to Winterfell. We didn't talk much when I first saw her but, after the bear, she seemed to open up to the idea that I wasn't just a fancy lord from a fancy castle."

"What do you mean, 'after the bear'?" Jon could have sworn he saw a sparkle of mirth in her eyes as she asked the question but that was soon replaced by an insistence as Jon realized that she was not going to let him get out of answering the question.

After a small chuckle at the relative normalcy of confronting a bear after his run-ins with sea serpents, mire-lurks and giant spiders, Jon provided the answer that she was waiting to hear. "At Winterfell, the Lord Eddard Stark has a ward named Theon Greyjoy. Theon likes to think of himself as something of a ladies man and he made several remarks that Ygritte did not appreciate which prompted her to explore the Wolfswood. As luck would have it, I came across her in my own explorations later when she had been forced to climb a rock to get away from a bear that was looking for a meal. Long story short, I was able to kill the bear and Ygritte seemed much less hostile than she had been with anyone to that point."

The corner of Arachne's mouth angled upward in a slight smirk. "So you saved the damsel in distress and she fell madly in love with you?"

Jon outright laughed at the thought of Ygritte's reaction to being considered a damsel in distress. "I think there are a lot of words that you could use to describe her but calling her a damsel in distress wouldn't be anywhere near the top of the list. She has a fiery spirit to match her hair which she would say was kissed by fire. She is willing to help those that can't help themselves and has shown that she is more than capable of handling herself in dangerous situations."

Arachne angled her head down and looked up at Jon with burning eyes that seemed to prompt him to elaborate. "It sounds like you admire her quite a bit. I couldn't help but notice that you didn't deny the fact that she is madly in love with you?"

Her words caused the fading blush to come back, in full force, on Jon's face. "That's a bit more complicated. I don't know that she is in love with me but she definitely did not appreciate when I was alone with Ysolda. The two of them haven't been getting along very well."

Jon's words caused Arachne to laugh. "Well, I'm sure that she would not have appreciated you being so forward with me then, would she?" Arachne nudged Jon's arm with her shoulder and wiggled her body against his side to remind him of the contact that he had initiated. "That's a bridge to cross another day, I think. You've told me about Ygritte, now tell me about Ysolda."

A goofy grin had spread across Jon's face as a result of Arachne's action. He felt a little strange talking about the two young women that he had come into contact with since his life had been changed by the Stargaryan Ring with another young woman who, in a way, was also the oldest person that he had ever met but he found that he was enjoying her line of questioning, not to mention the way that her scantily clad body was pressed against him. "I met Ysolda on my travels home to Winterfell. Her town had been attacked by Wildlings and traitorous members of the Nights Watch. The traitors wanted to take her with them as they fled the town. I don't want to think about what they would have done to her if they hadn't been stopped."

Arachne's smile dropped into a frown at Jon's words and he noticed the skin on the bridge of her nose crinkling as if she had smelled something vile. It was at this moment that Jon noticed that when Arachne blinked she never had all of her eyes closed at the same time; though the matching eyes on either side of her face would close together, she would always have at least two eyes open.

Jon noticed her fists clenched in her lap as she contemplated his words and saw her chest heave as she took a deep breath and release a long sigh. Though she was silent, Jon would swear that he could see a reply forming behind those burning red eyes.

Eventually, after several long minutes, Arachne seemed to compose herself and found her voice again. "You did a good thing, Jon Snow. To allow that kind of scum to do the heinous things to a woman would have been despicable. It makes sense that she would seek to stay under your protection after you did such a thing for her."

Arachne's words caused Jon to pause to consider. Was that what it was? Ysolda told me that she wanted to find her brother and would travel to Winterfell so she could find him. I would want to find any remaining family I had also, especially if something as terrible as what happened to her town had happened to everyone that I cared about. The thoughts raced through Jon's mind as he tried to formulate a response for Arachne. "I would never allow such a thing to happen if it was in my power to stop it."

A small smile graced Arachne's face and she snuggled into Jon's side and rested her head at the crook where his neck met his shoulder while maintaining eye contact. "So that's how you met the second damsel in distress. It's not surprising that she would have agreed to follow you after something like that had happened. In fact, I wouldn't have been surprised if such an act had her throwing herself at you in gratitude."

For what seemed like the hundredth time over the course of the conversation, Jon felt his cheeks flush with color. "I wouldn't say that she threw herself at me," Jon was choosing his words carefully but wanted to see if he could be the one to make her blush for a change. "Being alone with her, in her quarters, as she took off her clothes doesn't seem like it would count as her throwing herself at me."

Arachne did not blush as Jon intended but she did seem to bristle for moment before raising her head from its position on his shoulder as her eyes narrowed and she moved closer until Jon could feel her lips on his ear. "You wouldn't be making that part of the story up to try and make me jealous now, would you?"

Jon's heart immediately started racing from the intimacy of such an act and the feel of her body pressed so exquisitely close to his own. Jon maintained enough coherence despite the urges of his body to form words, "Make you jealous?"

It was just a simple adjustment on Arachne's part but her movement caused her ample bosom to press against Jon's body in a way that evoked a very specific reaction in the young man. Jon broke the eye contact that had been established between the two after Arachne's adjustment and his eyes ventured to the valley between the soft orbs of flesh that were pressed so tightly to his body and it was all that Jon could do to stop from moaning at the sheer beauty of the situation in which he had found himself.

Arachne leaned forward to brush her lips against his earlobe again before nibbling gently and voicing her thoughts. "I knew that's what you were trying to do. Do you think me another damsel in distress to fall so easily under your charm?"

If it weren't for the blood rushing to a certain part of his body, he was sure that his face would be as red as the flag that bore the sigil of house Lannister. "What charm do you speak of?"

Jon cast his eyes down, meticulously avoiding the fleshy orbs that were smashed against him as Arachne laughed at his confusion. She thumped her hand against the muscle of his chest before clarifying, "Of course. You've proven yourself to be quite the magician. Apparently you find damsels who are in distress and cast a spell to cloud their minds, just as you have cast your spell on me."

Ready to dispute the claim that he had cast any spell of that nature on Arachne, Ysolda, Ygritte or anyone else for that matter, Jon turned his head sharply only to see a teasing expression on her face that he found much more at home than the usual stoic expression that she wore. "I promise you that I don't know a spell that would do that and I wouldn't use it on you or anyone that I care about if I did."

Arachne arched a brow and leaned away from him slightly, causing an ache of loss to course through Jon's body as the pressure from her ample bosom was removed from his body. Jon was not granted much of a reprieve, as she moved her left hand from his chest to rest very high on his thigh before speaking, "So now you are saying that you care about me? Choose your words with care, Jon Snow. A lady may not know what to think about such a declaration."

The pressure of Arachne's hand on Jon's thigh, and the knowledge of how close it was to his most intimate parts, was at the forefront of his mind before he could answer, "Of course I care about you. No one should have to go through what you had to go through."

Arachne brought her hands to her chest and traced her ample bosom down the concave curve of her waist and over the convex curve of her hips. "Are you sure that is what I've been through that is evoking this response from you and not my appearance?"

Jon closed his eyes and gave his head a quick shake in an attempt to clear the erotic image from his mind before responding, "I can't pretend that I do not appreciate your wardrobe choices but this is more than that."

Upon hearing his explanation, Arachne stood and turned to face him before moving all of her weight to her right leg to emphasize the curve of her hip before resting her hand right where her slim waist tapered into the hips that evoked flames of passion in Jon that seemed to roar with their desire for her.

Arachne's face broke into a wide smile revealing the dangerous teeth that reminded Jon that, no matter how alluring he found her appearance to be on the surface, her interior had been warped by the power of the curse that had oppressed her for so many years. Arachne noticed the attention that Jon's attention had moved from her figure to her smile and bared her fangs in all of their glory before closing her mouth winking the eyes not shrouded by her lilac hair and blowing a kiss in his direction.

"Do I scare you, Jon Snow?" Arachne asked as she moved forward and raised her right leg and brought her bare foot down right at the fork of Jon's legs. Though this gave him a close up view of the smooth skin of her leg it also caused him to remember the pressure that had been building that he had been trying his best not to notice. "If you knew what was good for you, I would."

"I honestly am not sure how I feel about all of this." Jon didn't want to risk the reaction that was threatening to occur if he stared at her body for too long so he turned his head to the left to examine a shelf of books as if it had suddenly become the most interesting thing in the room. "On one hand we're all alone in this cave and you don't seem to have any reservations about showing your body to me. On the other hand, it's been a long time since you were yourself and I don't want you to do anything that you may regret."

The fingers from Arachne's right hand caressed the right side of Jon's face for a moment before gently pulling his attention back to her. "If you want to help make sure that I don't end up doing anything to you that I may regret then I suggest that you help me get out of this place sooner than later. Even though the curse has been held at bay, I feel like it is slowly returning to full strength."

Jon ran his right hand up the calf of the leg that Arachne had put between his legs before answering, "Even with all of today's training, I still haven't made any progress with Alteration Magic. I may not be able to cast a spell that will hide the evidence of the curse from the world."

Arachne raised her hands to her head to pull her hair back to expose the eight eyes burning on the top of her head before leaning forward and rotating her head slowly to take in the sight of Jon with each of her eyes. Though her right hand fell back to Jon's shoulder, she kept her hair pulled back with her left hand. "You told me that your magic does not become stronger as you level up. What if it's like the lights? You started with one but eventually you were able to control more than one at a time."

Jon reached up with his hands to grip Arachne's face and pull her down so that her face was level with his. She did not resist the pull and turned her body so she could sit in his lap as he took in the sight of her eyes and considered what he could possibly do to help her. "Maybe you're right. I don't want to accidentally hurt you and it may be easier for both of us if we take it one step at a time."

Arachne appeared pensive at the thought. "Even though I understand why such magic is necessary, I can't help but feel like I'll be losing a part of myself."

Jon frowned at the thought. So much has been taken from her already. I don't want to leave this cave resenting me for taking another thing away from her. Catching her staring at him, Jon moved his arms to circle her waist and closed his eyes while sighing deeply. As his eyes closed and the vision of the lovely woman on his lap was replaced by darkness, Jon was stuck with an idea that caused his eyes to spring open. "What if there was a way to allow you to leave the cave without taking away the vision that you have become used to?"

It was as if a switch was flipped in Arachne's heart as she bounced with joy on Jon's lap. This caused Jon's mouth to flop open as he was given an up-close view of her breasts bouncing as he felt the warmth of her butt eliciting a reaction from his body. Arachne felt the reaction and she stopped bouncing before smirking mischievously, "I would say that we should pursue that option. Unless you were interested in pursuing… something else first."

Jon stifled a groan at Arachne's most recent wiggling efforts. "Umm… Something else sounds like a great idea."

Arachne raised a finger to her chin and quirked her head as if considering Jon's words. "Well maybe if I like the idea we can consider something else until you can make the magic work."

Jon shook his head to rid his mind of the implications of Arachne's words. "Yes. Well, I'm not sure if it will work but I was thinking that it may be possible to spell your eyelids so that you could see through them if you wanted to and spell the eyes on your forehead so that it did not look like you had extra eyes."

All of Arachne's eyes seemed to bore into Jon, making him uncomfortable in a much less pleasant way than the concept of doing 'something else' with her had just moments earlier. "Did you have another plan in mind?"

As if trying to discern whether or not Jon was telling the truth about being able to make something invisible, Arachne's voice was quiet when she spoke. "Is it really possible? It sounds too good to be true."

Jon furrowed his brow before answering, "It should be possible. I know I can use Illusion magic to make something temporarily invisible. I think I can use Alteration magic in a similar way to make that type of change permanent."

Arachne seemed to sigh in exasperation. "What good would it do if my eyelids were invisible? Everyone would still be able to see my eyes. In fact, it would be worse since they would always be on display."

Jon opened his mouth to respond then closed it when he realized that she was correct. "Well, I'll just have to make sure that the spell will let you see out but won't let others see in… Yeah, that could work."

It didn't look like Arachne had much faith in Jon's ability so he began channeling his magic while focusing on Arachne, hoping that his Magic Manipulation would come through for him before he ran out of magic and that Arachne would not be too offended if he did succeed.

The seconds ticked by slowly and Jon felt the drain on his magical reserves but, as with the other times that he had used Magic Manipulation, the results that he desired seemed just out of reach. However, as he felt the last of his magic slip away from him, Jon was rewarded with the sight of the daring garment worn by Arachne disappearing from view.

Magic Manipulation + 20,000
Alteration: Transfiguration + 20,000
Transfiguration: Transfiguration is the ability to change the shape or properties of an object. The magical cost of this type of spell varies depending on the magical density of the subject. Magical density is determined by the magical potential of an object. Items with low magical potential, such as cloth, will require less magic to Transfigure than items with high magical density, such as dragon scale. When it comes to Transfiguration, what you can accomplish is limited only by your imagination and your magical reserves and if both are sufficient then there is nothing that you can't accomplish.

Though Arachne did not know what Jon had done, she followed his gaze to her chest and was surprised to see her light brown nipples proudly on display on her chest. For the first time, Jon made Arachne blush as she raised an arm to conceal her sudden nudity and moved her other hand to cover the space between her legs when she noticed that her outfit was no longer concealing her form Jon's view.

"What the hell?" Arachne's voice had rose an octave more out of surprise at the situation than concern at the thought of Jon seeing more of her body. "I said we could do 'something else' if I liked your idea. What made you think I liked your idea? It doesn't even seem like it will work!"

Jon was regretting how he went about showing Arachne his idea but felt that she would be more forgiving once she saw what he had accomplished. "I know it seems crazy but tell me, can you still feel what you are wearing? If you can pull it away from your body and try to look through it."

Though the top eyes on Arachne's forehead maintained a withering glare at Jon, the eyes centered on her face complied with his instruction as she reached between her breasts in a pantomime of pulling a top away from her body. "You did it! I can't see through my bodysuit!"

Arachne's head jerked up and she threw her torso at Jon's body with as much momentum as the limited space between them would allow, allowing him an unencumbered look at her body as she pressed him to the bed.

"He knows how to play! Jon Snow knows how to play!" she teased. "Itty, bitty baby Snow. You playing a trick on poor, defenseless me when I'm trapped, all alone, in this cave and at your mercy."

Jon's eyes felt like they were doing their best to escape from his skull as he took in all of Arachne's beautiful body from the swell of her breast to the thatch of hair where her thighs met. As Arachne ran her hand down her taut stomach and bared her teeth, Jon couldn't help but think he was the one who was trapped in her game and that any efforts to defend himself from her ministrations would be met with failure.

When Arachne dipped her face to the crook of her neck, he was greeted to a sight that had been threatening to take over his mind since he had woke that morning, the pale skin of Arachne's round arse in the flickering candlelight of the chamber. "Arachne," Jon started, causing Arachne to pull away from his neck.

Arachne blinked her eyes coquettishly as she made eye contact with Jon. "I thought that you wanted to do 'something else,' Jon Snow. Was I mistaken?"

Jon shook his head fervently, "No, I mean, you we weren't wrong. I have no problem with what we're doing."

Arachne pushed against his chest so she was in a sitting position, straddling his hips while her breasts were on full display for Jon's eager eyes. "I don't know. Maybe we should just go to sleep."

Jon's mouth dropped open as his mind raced to find the words to prevent such a thing from happening. "Didn't you say that after so much time being locked in your mind that you didn't want to go to sleep?"

Arachne smiled as she rolled off him and plopped down on the bed on her side so their faces were mere inches apart. "I may have said something like that but, after all this time, I am so close to leaving this gods forsaken cave. I should be well rested for when I greet the new world."

I could only imagine how much I would want to leave if I had been trapped somewhere for as long as Arachne has been here. Jon thought to himself before speaking. "There is still the matter of transfiguring your eyes so everyone doesn't find out your secret when they see you. There is no telling how long that will take."

Arachne looked at Jon as if he was slow. "I've seen how quickly you regain your magic after you run out. Even if it takes that long for you to Transfigure, did you say, each eye, the whole process should take less than two hours."

Pausing to consider what Arachne had witnessed during his training, Jon spoke measuredly, "Even if we were to complete the Transfiguration it would hardly be proper for you to leave the cave in such a state." Jon gestured to Arachne's very visible body whit a smile at his own cleverness. "Walking around naked would draw far much more attention than an extra pair of eyes or two, or three, would cause. It's probably for the best that we just continue what we were doing."

Arachne's face grew stern at Jon's suggestion. "You agreed to help me out of this cave and now that you finally have a way to do so, you are suggesting that we stay here? I promise you that whatever you are imagining we would do in here pales in comparison to how I would thank the man who helps me leave this place."

Guilt wracked Jon's face as he considered what she must be thinking of him due to his actions. "I must beg forgiveness, Arachne. I did not mean to keep you trapped here for any longer than necessary. I was just caught up in the moment."

"There is nothing to forgive, Jon Snow. As long as you get me out of here as soon as possible then consider the matter forgotten."

Jon had the decency to blush as he spoke, "I can't exactly forget about it with your body so clearly visible."

Again Arachne pushed herself up to rest on her hip before gazing down at her body appraisingly. "Well consider it encouragement. You will change my bodysuit back to normal after you finish with Transfiguring my eyes. Until then, consider it a promise of what is to come once you help me out of here."

Just over two hours later, Jon wiped his brow exhausted after depleting his magic so many times throughout the course of the day.

Alteration: Transfiguration + 65,000

With one look at the remaining visible eyes on Arachne's forehead, Jon took a deep breath before collapsing backwards in exhaustion. "It's done."

The two eyes that Jon could see were firmly locked with his own. "I can't begin to tell you what this means to me. Just knowing that people would not run from me in terror makes me feel as if the power of the curse was receding," Arachne gushed as she laid her head down on his chest while never breaking the eye contact. "I must admit that I was skeptical to think that you could do such a thing, despite your assurances earlier. The prospect seemed far too good to be true but I wanted to believe you. I wanted to believe in you."

Jon allowed a smile to creep across his exhausted face. "Now all that is left is your teeth and no one would suspect you are more than a beautiful woman with purple hair and blood red eyes."

At this, Arachne batted her eyelashes, "Flattery will get you everywhere with women, Jon Snow, remember that. I'll keep my teeth, just as they are. I have no one else to talk to anyone in this new world and if they can't accept that my teeth are sharper than most then they won't be able to accept all the rest of what brought me to this place."

Although Jon could think of many instances where he had to talk to people that he did not want to, he did not seek to press the matter since Arachne seemed to have already made up her mind. "If you're sure then I won't push you to do something that you do not wish to do. I know that you want to get out of here as soon as possible but I'm tired after all the training today and the Transfiguration on top of it all."

It seemed that Arachne came to a similar conclusion on not pressing the matter with Jon as she chose to pursue a different line of questioning, "Then tell me how you made your clothes appear out of thin air this morning. I know that you can do magic but that's far beyond what the magic you've shown me should be able to do."

Jon raised an eyebrow at her statement while a chuckle rose in his throat, "You've seen me make the visible invisible and then you say me make something invisible visible again, why would you think that making clothes appear would be beyond what I could do with magic?"

Arachne gave an unamused huff as a very cute expression crossed her face before thumping his chest with her hand. "You promised."

After all that she had seen, the last thing that Jon had to worry about was telling Arachne about the Stargaryan Ring. "Well, it all started when the man who raised me as a son, the honorable Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell gave me a ring…"

AN2: I had to split this chapter's content in half since Arachne is such a scene stealer. Rest assured that the Return to Winterfell arc will be coming to a close in the next chapter or two. Thanks to everyone who made suggestions on what they would like to see, I have added around 20 of my favorites to my outline and will look to include them in future chapters. Keep the ideas coming and you just may see your influence on this story! Please let me know what you thought of the chapter in a review and I will push to get chapter 21 out asap!