The sounds of our descent echoed weirdly along the stone steps as we descended, every breath and click of our heels warped and bounced off the narrow confines of the stairwell. I could hear subtle whispers among the shuffling of pants and shoes from our group, strange snickers and comments I could only hear enough to almost be sure they were speech but not enough to understand them. Abby was muttering to herself and clinging to Magnus, while Sarah sounded like she was comforting her friend.

Our gentle healer had a hell of a spine on her, even I was a bit unnerved, but Sarahs voice was kind and steady as she spoke to Abby, not a quaver or a hint of uncertainty to be found. The strange candles seemed to almost funnel our vision down the steps, somehow fading out before hitting the walls they hung from and giving an eerie impression that they hung in mid air. As we made our way further down, after about fifteen minutes of walking the candles leveled out spreading at the bottom of the stairs to about thirty feet apart. Between the eerie green flames stretched a somehow perfectly visible stone floor, and on either side of this new aisle stretched and endless row of tables, covered in everything a person could imagine.

Behind each table stood a figure halfway hidden by the darkness the sprung up like a wall past the dimly lit aisle of eerie green light. Some of the figures could be easily seen, even in the partial darkness, while some chose to use the shadows to obscure themselves. Some wore dark hoods and had suspiciously bulging wraps around their faces, while some stood fully exposed to the light in pleasant and stylish clothes, fully confident in their strange hued skin and odd features. Each table seemed to have a theme, be it weapons or esoteric, medicine or living creatures. The sounds from the seemingly endless aisle of tables bounced weirdly around the room, somehow making everything both completely audible and impossible to overhear.

We came to the first table in the row and Shawn pulled us to a stop in front of it. The girl behind the table was pretty and slim, with a face that would probably have been described as adorable, if everything about her wasn’t subtly alien and terrifying. Her hair was a flat stone gray, cascading waterfall straight down around her shoulders and down her back. Her eyes were a burning toxic green, and her black lips pulled tight in a smile over a mouthful of razor sharp teeth. A second row of teeth could be seen slightly behind the first, off center from the primary row, somehow giving the impression of both a shark and a chain saw.

The girls creepy smile shone pleasantly and somehow hungrily at us as she cooked meat on a small grill set up at the table. The table was covered in plastic wrapped meat steaks of various colors, and the slightly green one the girl was grilling actually smelled pretty good. Her voice was oddly sweet and harmless sounding coming from that terrifying mouth “Welcome customers, a long day of shopping ahead of you im sure. Perhaps a snack for energy? Orc nuggets today on special, my secret recipe. A 25% boost to stamina recovery for five hours. Two XP per nugget.”

I felt my face get a bit pale as I realized she was cooking orc meat, and I was pretty sure I had seen a few orcs selling wares here. Apparently my horror showed on my face because she was quick to address my concerns “Please sir, don’t worry, our meat is freshly sourced from the most heinous of criminals, no innocent sentients are harmed in production.” Despite being nice to know I felt like she mostly missed the point of my discomfort, but luckily it didn’t matter as Star came to my rescue.

The maenad, who I always forget is a cannibal, shouldered past us and stepped up to the table excitedly “Is that Tengu meat? I haven’t had Tengu in years! I used to eat at this place in St. Louis that did a fantastic pulled Tengu sandwich. How much for the roast?” The grey haired girl beamed at the pretty blonde, her terrifying teeth somehow made less so by the genuine joy in her bright green eyes.

Her eyes locked firmly on Star she giggled at the maenad “What a discerning palate! Yes that Tengu was locally sourced and its very fresh. He was caught selling secrets by the local clan. I used to date one of the clan heads sons and our breakup was amicable so I keep in touch. I got an excellent deal on several hundred pounds of premium meat. The roast is usually ten XP but I could go down to seven for such a kindred spirit if it comes with a promise for repeat business. I’m Ren by the way, Renalie Whittacker, you all seem a bit shell shocked, new students at Hellstrom I presume?”

Star seemed thrilled to potentially make a new friend, and I felt a pang of guilt at leaving my body guard to fend for herself so often while the others and I studied and trained. We included her when we could but since she wasn’t in the program she wasn’t always able to be part of things. “I’m Star, and yeah we’re Hellstrom students, you said your last name is Whittacker? Do you know Rhys Whittacker? Not to assume but I expect there aren’t many ghouls named Whittacker who work with exotic meats. I’ve heard amazing things about The Beastro. Never had a chance to go myself though.”

Ren smiled even brighter “He’s my dad, I even do some prep work at the restaurant sometimes, I could totally get you guys in if you wanted. The food is amazing. Dad has been cooking for centuries and some of the buffs you can get from his food are insane. The specials can even give permanent stat boosts sometimes if he gets a crazy rare ingredient in.” She packaged the roast and passed it to Star along with her number and a wink. Our shameless maenad actually blushed at the pretty ghoul. I could almost feel my busybody sister decide to play matchmaker on the spot, and made peace with the fact that we were probably going to be getting to know Ren much better.