Jeane blinked at that and was clearly too stunned to think properly for a few moments.

"But... people have looked for that for centuries and no one's found it. I haven't even heard of that from the nonhumans, and I've heard a lot from them."

"It's not exactly advertised," Khalid replied carefully. "Nobody really likes talking about it, because it's dangerous to us."

And here came the downfall. "Okay. How dangerous and how so?"

"It requires a sacrifice," Khalid replied carefully. "The more long-lived the sacrifice, the better for the one benefitting."

"Wait. Are you telling me that someone has to give up their life?" Jeane sounded a little squeaky, but she kept her voice quiet so as not to alert the others.

"I told you it was dangerous," Khalid reminded. "For non-humans, at least. The extra life has to come from somewhere."

Jeane frowned. "I don't want to do that," she said quietly. "I wouldn't feel right about it."

"It's the only way I know of to get you what you want," Khalid pointed out. "You want to live as long as we do, then it has to come from somewhere. There is only one legitimate way to make life, and it's not the way that will benefit you right now." She glanced at her son and back at Jeane. "The only other way is to steal it."

Jeane sighed. She still didn't like the idea, but at least it was an idea. Something she could think about, at least. "Alright," she said quietly. "I'll think about it. Thanks, Khalid."

"Let me know if you need to know anything else," Khalid replied. She hadn't told Jeane anything about the rumored process for the Fountain of Youth, but would if Jeane asked.

Jeane nodded and glanced in on the food. "It's got a little while yet to heat up," she said absently. "Mind if I go explore a bit?"

"Go ahead," Khalid replied. "Just mind the bedrooms, one of them belongs to Robin for the time being."

"Don't worry, I'll stay out of any closed rooms." Jeane headed off down the hall again, starting to explore the house. Including the bathrooms, since she could.

Everything had been nice and relaxed in the house. Up until Jeane shrieked. Then there was a small stampede of people running towards her.

Jeane had managed to hop up on the counter, her hand over her mouth, staring at the one-inch black spider creeping up the wall.

Cal had been one of the first to get to her, and he stopped when he saw what was going on.

"Really, Jeane?" he asked when he saw the spider. He gave her a bit of a Look. At which point Khalid gave them both a Look and snapped her fingers, making the spider disappear.

Jeane managed to scramble around the various blades in the room and onto Cal's shoulder, clinging to his hair and partially to his ear to stay where she was.

"Don't like spiders."

Robin snorted and put his sword away. "Jeane, I think you are the only person I know that is scared of spiders but not of an Aupheling."

"It was just a spider," Cal said, somehow managing to put his knife away with Jeane sitting on his head. "Not even a big one." Then again, his version of a 'big spider' was a little skewed, given the nepenthe spiders he'd once encountered.

"I don't like spiders." Jeane managed to tug on his hair a little, still clinging to him. Because now she hadn't the faintest idea how to get down without falling on her face.

Robin snickered, debated offering to help, and decided that just watching the two was far more entertaining.

"You can say that once you've seen spiders the size of dogs," Cal said, trying to dislodge her. Or at least get her to cling to something that wasn't attached to his head. One of the two.

"No. No no no." Jeane paused for a moment and gentled her grip. Some. "You're exaggerating about those spiders, right?"

"No," Niko and Robin both deadpanned.

Somehow, that didn't surprise Khalid. It didn't surprise her at all.

"Jeane, sweetie, get down," she said after a moment."

"You see a convenient landing pad?" Jeane asked, looking at the very hard tiled floor.

Ish rolled his eyes and decided to take pity on Cal, more because he didn't want to be subjected to any more of his bitching, and picked up Jeane by the waist, setting her down on her feet. "Problem solved."

Jeane turned red and mumbled something close to a thanks.

Khalid suppressed a snort.

"Now that this is dealt with, we can go back into the other room again," she said.

Jeane pouted a little but slunk back into the kitchen to go check on dinner.

Ishiah snorted and followed Khalid. "Spiders? Really?"

Khalid shrugged.

"I'm grateful we didn't see any sand spiders in Arabia," she commented. "If she reacts like that to a tiny thing like that." She glanced at Robin. "Spiders the size of dogs?"

Robin shivered. "Nepenthe spiders," he grumbled. "Had a run in with them a little while back." He glanced at Niko and Cal.