It was no rarity for alchemists to run gastronomies, cooking just being a tamer version of alchemy that required similar skills in timing, preparation and mixing of ingredients. The restaurant they were headed to was located in the same section of Rockhaven that also housed the Alchemist Guild, although a bit more towards the outer parts of the city.

After just a few minutes of walking, they stood before the restaurant named "The Creeper's Tongue". Naming buildings after poisons or poisonous ingredients was somewhat of a tradition among Alchemists, however finding good original names became increasingly harder since the colorful sounding ones had been used up fairly quickly.

The Creeper's Tongue was one of the oldest alchemical gastronomies in Rockhaven and its interior also looked the part. There were no lamps of any kind, all the light came from diamond-glass pipes running through everything. The pipes contained glowing liquids with intense red, green and blue colors, sometimes connecting to larger tanks. The pipes on the walls were thinner and formed complex patterns. Next to their primary function as lighting, the liquids flowing through the pipes also served as a way to keep the room at an ideal temperature. It was clear that a lot of money and time had been sunk into this elaborate piping system.

There were not many others in the restaurant since most people would eat a couple of hours later. This meant that they could take the large round table in the middle of the restaurant for themselves. The table had a glass surface through which you could see the different glowing liquids forming blobs and reacting with each other, it looked similar to a lava lamp only that the blobs travelled in all directions instead of just up and down. The enchantress that had come with them sat down next to Fire, Shadow sat down on his other side, Carol beside her, followed by freeZe, Ambigious, TehLulz and Unchosen.

Ambigious said: "This place looks expensive."

Shadow replied: "Everything in Rockhaven is expensive, to outsiders at least. People working in the guilds have a steady and high source of income, guild leaders also receive extra money depending on how the guild is doing, good leadership needs to be rewarded after all."

The enchantress raised a purse, evidently full of gold coins and said: "We two got our share of the down-payment already. If the enchantment is satisfactory to our buyer, the guild receives the rest."

Shadow said: "Shielding mages receive their entire payment right away, it's a fair bit higher than the upfront sums the enchanters get. I think that everything you order should be on me."

The enchantress said: "Thank you, Shadow."

Shadow asked: "What is your name by the way? You never told me."

The enchantress answered: "Undira."

Their conversation was interrupted by a waiter wearing the characteristic alchemist coat coming to the table and handing out menus to everyone.

Fire said: "The first pages have all kinds of regular food, the pages further back have more interesting things."

Shadow interjected: "There is a meal that looks like a human head."

freeZe said: "I'd rather not…"

Shadow grinned. "But I will."

Undira said: "I actually ate that once, it only looks like one from the outside, the inside structure is nothing like a head."

Unchosen pointed at his menu: "There is a 'contains glowstone' on this one, what about that?"

Fire explained: "Glowstone is safe to eat, in over five thousand years I haven't found anybody with a glowstone allergy yet. If it's ground up finely enough it gets into your blood and gives you glowing veins and eyes, mostly used for cosmetic purposes but it can also help during certain medical procedures. If you eat an extraordinary amount you should avoid physical activity afterwards because you could overheat."

Ambigious asked: "What about redstone?"

Fire answered: "Eating or inhaling it is not that good of an idea. It accumulates on your nerves over time and can cause some serious damage to motor functions if there is enough of it. That's also the reason why redstone engineers wear masks."

Ambigious asked: "Blaze powder?"

Fire replied: "It's hot, obviously. In small amounts it helps you retain your body temperature in cold areas. I don't think I need to go into detail about what happens when you eat larger quantities of a hot-burning powder. If you're fireproof due to a potion, magic or being a Mencur-Besh it can be used to breathe flames, it's a party trick mostly."

freeZe meanwhile was going through the list of drinks and discovered that more than a few had a tag that labelled them as toxic. The paragraph describing the tag said that those drinks were primarily for alchemists who had acquired a resistance or for people with various health conditions who needed to take certain substances.

Once they all had decided on what they wanted to eat and drink, they called the waiter and ordered. The four apprentices ordered nothing out of the ordinary, Undira ordered glowstone soup, Fire ordered a plate of exotic meats, Shadow ordered an edible human head, at which freeZe shuddered again.

While waiting, most of them started talking to each other. Undira talked to Fire and seemed to be extremely interested in Mencur-Besh anatomy, Fire answered her questions in generous detail but occasionally diverted the focus of the conversation away from sensitive information. Ambigious talked to TehLulz and Unchosen. freeZe passed the time by staring at the blobs inside the table while occasionally joining her brother in the conversation. Only Carol and Shadow said nothing.

After a few minutes, Carol tapped Shadow's shoulder. "Would you mind taking down your obfuscation spell, it's really putting me off not being able to feel any vital signs from you."

Shadow smiled. "There is no obfuscation spell. It's just how I am."

"What do you mean?"

Shadow asked: "Have you ever read about the process of ascension?"

Carol replied: "I have, it's just that there isn't a whole lot of good documentation out there, the exact process is never described. I assume that's because they don't want anyone repeating it."

"Trying."

"What?"

"Trying to repeat it, they won't succeed. I am fairly certain that my ascension was a very lucky interplay of many very variable factors and it's very unlikely that it will ever succeed again."

Carol asked: "I hope you don't mind, but what does ascension have to do with anything?"

Shadow said: "I can tell you this much, during the process I was in a state of equilibrium, right between life and death, not undead, that's a completely different direction. What made my ascension successful is that I remained in that state. I lost my vital functions in the process, I am entirely driven by magic."

Carol raised an eyebrow. "How should I imagine that?"

Shadow explained: "My heart doesn't beat, I don't have any blood to speak of, my muscles are actuated by magic, I don't need to eat, drink or sleep although I can if I want to. Whatever I consume is turned directly into life force."

Carol asked: "So, can you even die?"

Shadow replied: "Can a mountain die? If something isn't truly alive, it also can't die. My body can be destroyed but I never die."

Carol breathed out slowly and said: "This is quite heavy over dinner."

Shadow said: "I can put up a spell that makes you see vital signs, if that puts you at ease."

Carol shook her head. "No, no. It's fine. It just begs the question about why you need mercenaries to escort you."

Shadow said: "While I may be fairly resistant, the same can't be said about my apprentice. Being mangled by a magic immune beast isn't fun either and forming a new body from scratch could take months."

"That makes sense."

Eventually the waiter arrived with their respective meals, everybody got exactly what they imagined their order to be. Undira's soup glowed as expected. Fire's meats looked as exotic as expected. Shadow's human head was as disturbing as expected.

Halfway through the meal Undira started glowing noticeably, especially her veins stood out in a powerful yellow, naturally her eyes and the inside of her mouth had started glowing as well.

freeZe commented: "Looks fancy."

Undira replied: "Yup. It does make it a bit harder to see though, it's as if everything has a yellow tint." She then promptly turned to Fire and completely changed topic. "Fire, that strange sound you made at the end of the ritual, what was that?"

Fire finished chewing on some creeper steak and said: "We Mencur-Besh have a small ender pearl at the base of our skulls, I made mine resonate to better control the final step of the enchantment."

Undira said: "Mencur-Besh are so fascinating but there is so little to read about them."

Fire said: "Probably because our flesh and organs practically burn up within an hour after death, leaving only bones and scales behind. We ourselves don't even know how exactly some parts of us work due to that."

Fire then declared this topic to be done by once again starting to eat.

After a bit more time, they all were done eating and drinking. Shadow paid the bill as promised, then they all went on their way. As they left the Creeper's Tongue, Undira took a left while everyone else took a right.

Undira turned back around and said: "By the way, Fire. I'll be down in the lower districts tonight, I'd be happy if I saw you there too."

Carol chuckled and whispered to freeZe: "It seems that her interest in Mencur-Besh anatomy isn't purely academical." After a short pause she asked: "Does this… happen frequently?"

Ambigious had heard what Carol said and replied: "From all the time I've known him I can neither confirm nor deny that, which leaves several thousand years unaccounted for."

Ambigious threw his sister a sly grin when Carol looked away, the look he got in return had a mix of anger about what he meant and thankfulness about not having said it aloud.

When they reached the central plaza, Carol thanked them for the meal and then went into her tower.

Shadow said: "So, if you want you all can explore the city a bit. Feel free to visit any of the guilds, me and Fire will be off attending to matters that need attending."

Fire added: "Namely stocking up on provisions again. Also, I recommend visiting the Guard's place, spar with a couple of the people there, it'll do you good for future fights. freeZe, you can visit the Mage Guild for the same purposes of course."

With those words, Fire and Shadow walked off together, leaving the others standing in the middle of Rockhaven. They slowly started going their own ways to their respective destinations, freeZe went to the Mage Guild alone, the three others were headed for the Guard.