It's a bar. There appears to be no one there. The window is... impressive.

The door opens, and a man steps through. He stops, blinking in confusion: clearly he wasn't expecting a bar either. When the door starts to swing shut behind him, he whirls, dissolving into the air like smoke; but apparently he's too slow to catch it, because it shuts and he materializes again and slams his fist against the wood. His knuckles bleed; the door is affected not at all.

Next he tries turning into a pillar of searing flame. That doesn't work either.

Well, that's alarming.

She could stay invisible and watch, she supposes, but lurking around invisible is sort of not a great way to assure someone that's clearly annoyed that she's got the best intentions in mind. Sort of a pity to waste the spell, but she's not really great at stealth, anyway.

"Excuse me," she says, dropping the spell and fading into visibility. "Please don't burn the bar down with me in it, even if the door did something to upset you."

The pillar of flame twists and swirls and turns back into a man, staring very intently at her.

Ciaveth raises her eyebrows slightly, nonplussed. Maybe she should have stayed invisible.

"... Yes?"

"What's your name?"

Polite, isn't he, grouses Gann.

"Ciaveth Farlong. Might I know yours?"

"Serik Tanaikon. You look very much like my—" what word does he even use? "—like someone I know."

'My'?

"... Okay. One of us might be caught in some kind of illusion, or - something. Just to confirm - red hair, pale skin, tall-ish, slightly pointy ears..?"

"Yes, that's an accurate description of you."

"So, not some kind of illusion, probably." Pause. "When you say very much, are we talking long-lost-sister very much or creepily accurate doppelganger very much?"

"You look exactly like she would if she shrank a few inches, transformed her ears for some reason, and then didn't sleep for a week."

"I think it'd take a bit longer than just a week to get to my level of sleep deprived," she says, dry. "So, creepily accurate human doppelganger. Okay. Sure. My life can get weirder."

"You all right?"

Shrug.

"I've been worse."

"Need any help with anything?"

"... I have a curse on me. It's unpleasant and invariably lethal. I'm going to fix it anyway. I'm pretty happy to accept any offered help."

"That sounds like the kind of thing I might be able to help with. What kind of curse?"

"It's called the spirit eater curse. It's - pretty unique. Only one spirit eater at a time, in fact. I have an insatiable hunger for souls. The more I eat, the hungrier I get, and if I don't, it starts nibbling on me. And if I die it passes on to the nearest person to start again, and on and on it goes. Making monsters of - almost everyone it worms its way into."

"Sounds annoying."

"Yes."

"Well, I'm happy to help. Not sure how yet, but I'm the next thing to omnipotent, I'm sure I'll figure something out."

Eyebrow raise.

"Want to help me find a dead god and shake him down for answers?"

"Hmm... that depends. How long is it likely to take?"

"I don't know - speed's kind of a priority, considering, but I can't actually say how long it'll take to track down the dead god in question. Why?"

"Well, I have a mildly annoying problem myself," he admits, "in that if I go longer than a few weeks without torturing anyone I'll explode."