A/N Well, here is the fourth chapter. Thank you so much for sticking with me.

As always, big thanks to my dear beta Kyla Baines.

Bethany

The first thing Bethany did was get rid of the army of rats. Just how could he live like that? She found a special poison in the storage room where she also found cleaning supplies. Then she went to the cellar to get some cheese for bait. When she took one of the cheap looking cheeses, she felt some movement. It must have been one of those damned rats. She left the cellar immediately.

After setting up the mouse traps, she went to the hall to deal with the webs. She was casting Flame through the ceiling when she saw him. Fenris was on the stairs, watching her. His expression was pure horror. Priceless. She tried to hide her smile while continuing to send flames to the ceiling. After dealing with the vermin of the mansion, she started cleaning. While training as a child, her father had thought her to use her magic in variety of ways. If she could concentrate on specific elements, she could move them with her will. Her favorite was always water which was easy to control and fun to play with. By using her magic, she pulled the water from the buckets, turned it into a whirling shape and sent it to the floor. Five hours later she had finally finished with the first floor. Her stomach was growling, and Fenris was not around, again. Not that she wanted to eat with that prick.

Bethany went to the cellar with the hope to find something to eat. She was searching for some dried meat when she felt that presence again. The cellar was dark, so she could not see the source of the movement. She cast Light and sent the glowing orb to the dark corner. And then she saw it: a giant spider. A bloody giant spider was standing in the corner. Its enormous legs were slightly moving as her Light spell ended. She hurried to the exit, shaking with anger. He will answer to this.

Bethany went to his usual hiding place and found him sharpening his sword probably for the seventh time today.

"There is a giant spider in the cellar," Bethany stated while she kept her voice cold as possible.

Fenris finally turned his head from the sword. "You mean Alfredo?"

"You named it?!" her voice pitched high against her will and she could not stop her second question, "Alfredo?"

"He is an Antivan giant spider, the name seemed suitable," he said as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

This is not happening.

"Don't be that surprised. In Tevinter, giant spiders have been widely used to guard cellars. Like cats catching rats, these spiders eat the hostile animals."

"And it won't eat you, I presume," Bethany stated. She was still trying to recover from the first shock.

"We have a mutual understanding."

"May I kill it then?"

"I prefer you not. He has a great taste in wine."

Maker.

"You should give him a chance. He is one of a kind," Fenris said as he got up, "Come. Let me show you."

They went to the cellar. Fenris chose some expensive looking cheese and dried meat, and he put them on the table. He called it with that name again. The giant spider was beside them in a second. It was bigger than she remembered and it had a brown torso and thin dark brown legs. Giant spider Alfredo scanned the table as if it was evaluating what Fenris chose for dinner. After ten seconds, it turned to one of the wine racks, pulled a bottle with its three legs and brought the wine bottle to them. Just what is wrong with this place? Fenris looked to the wine, raised an eyebrow and took another wine bottle from the racks. Alfredo's reaction to Fenris' choice was simply a shriek. It quickly took the bottle from Fenris' hands and pushed its own choice to him. Fenris opened the bottle, smelled it and served the wine into two glasses. He gave her the other glass after he tasted from his. Alfredo, just when she started thinking of it as Alfredo, was waiting for her…to taste the wine she assumed. She slowly drank the wine, and to her surprise, she actually liked it. Then, she nodded to the giant spider. Unless her imagination was running away from her, Alfredo seemed pleased by her reaction. It raised a leg for them to wait and left. After couple of minutes, it returned slowly while carrying a jar in its legs. Alfredo carefully opened the jar with another other leg and extended it to her. The jar was filled with green olives she had never seen. All four pair of Alfredo's eyes was on her as he- he?- waited for her expectantly. "He wants you to taste it," Fenris said. This can't be real, she thought, yet she could not help but to taste the olives. They were delicious.

"Thank you," she said to the giant spider.

Alfredo's eyes were beaming with delight.

When they got out of the cellar, Fenris spoke. "You liked him, didn't you?"

"I…" she was not accepting the defeat that easily, "it's not normal to have a giant spider as pet."

"Yet you liked him," Fenris stated as it was obvious.

She let out a groan as Fenris chuckled.

On the next day, Bethany finished the cleaning of the second floor. Even though she was pleased with her work, she felt exhausted and dirty. Her usual outfit needed cleaning. She decided to make use of the private bathroom located inside of her room. After washing her outfit, she hung it to dry. Then, she filled the bath tub and warmed the water with a simple fire spell. Feeling the warm water swirl around her body had always had a soothing effect on her. Relaxing in the water, she used her jasmine soap to properly clean herself. She finished with bathing and dried herself, went to her room, passed the frozen mouse statute- which was still waiting for Fenris to get rid of- and checked her outfit. It was still damp. She searched her belongings and found what she was looking for.

The housedress. She was thirteen when Garret came home with the deep blue fabric. He knew she loved dresses and they could not afford them, so he had gambled with an Orlesian salesman and won the fabric. She had been delighted that day. Bethany and her mother spent days deciding what to do with that simple piece of cloth. Then her mother decided with a simple pattern which can be adjusted if Bethany grew out of it. However, they did not know that she would grow nine inches taller that summer as her breasts came into existence enthusiastically. Therefore, now, bottom of the dress came barely to her knees while its tight sleeveless top was a desperate attempt to cover her bosom. She knew she could not wear this in public, but she was too attached to the dress to put it out of use. As a result, the dress became a housedress nobody beside family members could see on her. Bethany did not mind that until last week when her thoughtful brother had dropped her in Fenris' mansion with next to no warning. Now, other than her nightgown, the housedress was the only thing she could wear in the mansion. Not that he would care what I wear.

Bethany chased the thought immediately, and looked for her comb in her bag. Then, she realized she forgot it. Blast it. Maybe she could find something useful in the room. She started searching the drawers of the dressing table. In the third drawer she felt an odd, tingling sensation in her fingertips. At first the drawer seemed normal, but now, she could see it was smaller than the others. She forced the backside of the drawer and the wooden barrier dropped. There was a shining object hidden there. Bethany had never seen something like that before. It looked like a compass, but there was not any indicator of direction. As she took the mysterious object in her hands, the sensation that she had felt earlier intensified. Clearly, this object was magical in nature. This might be dangerous, she thought. Bethany decided to inform Fenris about it.

Still observing the object, she called Fenris as she went down the stairs. She felt his presence and asked:

"I found something in my room. Do you know what this is?"

When she raised her head, she found Fenris…gawking?

Fenris turned his eyes away immediately and took a deep breath. Then, he took another deep breath.

"Are you ill?" she asked.

"I wish I was," Fenris said as he took a step away from her.

Not knowing what to make of him, she extended the object.

At one look of it, Fenris scowled, "This is a manaverium, a curse-holder. It is used for extending the length of a curse. Most magisters used these to sustain their curses even after their death."

"That's horrible."

Fenris smirked, "As is all use of magic."

Bethany ignored his comment and looked to the object more closely. There was a golden dragon carved on the top of it. The angle of its head was a bit awkward. She turned the head to make it right. With a click, the dragon shone brightly a moment and the tingling sensation vanished.

Then, they heard a laughing voice. Before they had figured out where the voice had come from, an elf came from nowhere.

"Hola, my friends," he said with a thick Antivan accent.

Fenris took his great sword and pointed at him, "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

The elf laughed at the question, "I am, my friend, Sergio the master chief of this mansion, virtuous king of tortillas, unyielding protector of onions and," he stopped to wink her, "loyal servant of beautiful women. Namely your Alfredo."

Alfredo? The giant spider?

Bethany could not voice these questions as being in the same shocked state as Fenris, yet Alfredo -or Sergio- filled the silence to talk anyway. He started to explain how he was making one of his special tortillas one day -without passing any of the additional information about the recipe- and how his witless employer got angry at him for adding onion to the tortilla he was making. "I tried to explain him that onion was essential, but it was pointless, as a baboon has better taste than that primitive idiot." He took a deep breath as if he came to the most dramatic part, "I might have said this to his face, I don't remember. Next thing I knew, I had eight legs!"

Then he came near her, "After I understood that the pathetic excuse of a magister died, I hoped that the curse would be broken eventually. Unfortunately, it did not. Then, I met our lyrium-shocked amigo and got my hopes up again, yet he used me for my divine taste of wine and cast me aside like a…pardon me, I can not use that word near you, my lady," he said as he gave an offended look to Fenris who was turning to purple at that point.

Alfredo took her hand, his brown eyes shining with appreciation, "Thanks to you my dear lady, I am an elf again. I am in your debt forever," and he kissed her hand.

"And now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get some fresh air," he said. All she could do was to nod. Then, Alfredo left the mansion.

When she turned to Fenris, she saw he was still carrying that shocked expression. Not being able to control herself anymore, Bethany burst out laughing.

A/N Alfredo belongs to me.

At first, I was not sure to create such character. I didn't even know how to name a gourmet giant spider. Then, Fenris in my mind spoke: "Alfredo" (Yeah, I am the type who hears voices).Yet, I thought real Fenris wouldn't choose this name. After a little search, I accidentally found Alfredo's meanings: elf counsel (?!)...supernaturally wise (O.o) As a result, I took that as a sign and Alfredo came into existence.

P.S: It feels weird to have a character that has better naming skills than me...