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The necromancer turned on the child, anger thinly veiled. "'All things have a right to grow,' however, life for this creature is no more than suffering, and the drain it is putting on your body is killing you, too."

Hollie stamped her feet, trembling like a leaf left long into winter. "I don't care! Haeler's mine! I need him!" Her tears were hot, angry things that cut into the grime and made her sweat-sheened face all the more concerning.

Haeler, her hound, loped to her side, trying to comfort her. He was in great pain, but even in death, his soul felt the need to soothe her. He croaked to her and she fell to her knees, clutching him... pouring more energy into him to make his pains cease. Her technique was inefficient, she was wasting her life to save his, which was long past saving.

Aleph kneeled before her and put a hand on her shoulder. She flinched away, and Aleph had felt her bones. "Hollie, please.. you are dying, he is killing you, so slowly. He is in great pain."

She looked up, eyes streaming. "Can't you do anything? Why can't you help? Haeler means so much to me! You're supposed to be a powerful Necromancer; why aren't you doing anything to help me?" She clutched the breathing corpse more tightly.

The Sylvari took both her shoulders now and looked her in the eyes. Luminescent crimson gazed deeply into a watery teal. "Because it was his time to go. He does not belong here anymore." She turned away, but Aleph took her chin and held it up, smiling at her, solemn. It was never easy. "Hollie, please listen to me. Becoming a Necromancer is not for preventing the death of your loved ones by giving them life beyond that which they had been blessed. Many walk this path seeking to escape death, but you must welcome it. Death is a part of life, Hollie. You must learn to let go." His hand dropped down to his side, releasing her.

She shook her head weakly. "But.. but I don't want to.. he's my best friend..."

The Sylvari nodded, knowingly. "And look at what great pain he is in. His soul needs to rest, the other side is calling him. Your fight to keep him tied to his body is killing you, and he knows it. Imagine, how wonderful it must be for him, to know that his time has come, but your love for him is strong enough to willingly go through such pains to have more time. But look at you now, my dear sapling. Imagine how it must hurt him, not only physically, but spiritually, too, knowing that he is the cause of your weakness."

The girl was sobbing, shaking. Her skin was cool, and she'd grown pale. How long had she kept Haeler's spirit tied to his body, in secret? A week? A fortnight? More?

"I don't.. I don't want him to hurt.. I don't want him to die... please... is there anything..?" She was choking the words out through sobs. Aleph tenderly wiped a tear from her cheek.

"My dear blossom, he is already dead." He remained silent, and then spoke, softly. "But I know something that might make things easier..." He sat down cross-legged in front of the small human, a hand on her, and a hand on the hound.

"Wh-no, please, don't hurt him.." She was growing weaker. Her struggles were but feeble twitches.

"No, no, shh, I would never. He is yours." He shook her shoulder reassuringly. His touch was gentle, but firm. "Hollie, do you doubt that Haeler knows of your love for him?"

She shook her head, barely. "I.. no... I don't know..." The corpse of the hound, stinking and rotting, licked the tears from her cheek. She clung to it, weeping still.

The Necromancer nodded. "Well I imagine that he must feel that you do... he can feel you pouring your energy into him, and see at what expense to yourself that you do it... I think he knows of your love. I think he can pass on knowing that you love him." He paused, to make sure she heard him. "You love him."

Hollie was silent for a while. The sewers were quiet, the staccato dripping of water periodically slicing through the gloom. Hollie looked up, eyes glassy. "Do you really think so..?"

Aleph nodded, his foliage rustling softly. "I know so. He is trying to comfort you, he knows your love for him is the source of your pain. I think he feels terrible that you suffer at his expense.. but I think he also feels loved, for your devotion to his life has drawn from within you the courage to challenge death, something incredibly remarkable, especially from one so young. ButI also know he would feel immeasurable guilt over you hurting yourself for his sake."

She coughed, trembling. "I don't.. I don't want him to feel... like he's bad, like he's hurting me.. he's a good boy."

The Sylvari nodded. "Indeed, he is. But I think he would be happy to see you healthy and happy, Hollie."

"But if I let go he'll be dead and won't see.."

He shook his head at her, and placed a hand over her heart. "Hollie, he will live on inside you, for love is something not even death may snatch away." The Sylvari leaned back, smiling warmly, and recounted a tale from his travels. "There are two ghosts in Ascalon, whose bodies have long since faded, whose spirits live on entwined within their love for each other. Death did not destroy their bond, and even though their ghosts are tied to this earth by a curse, by the Foefire, their love endures." He took the hand from over his heart, and slowly placed it over hers. "So shall yours." He smiled at her again, softly, secretively. "...and," he whispered, "you have an advantage over them."

She looked up, her eyes as pale as the moon. "I do?"

Aleph chuckled. "Of course, child. You, unlike them, are not yet dead."

She smiled, a thin, wavering little line of hope, and tried to laugh. "I guess so." She took the tears from her eyes with the heel of her hand, looking back down to her hound. "He doesn't want to cause me pain?"

"Never, and I doubt you want to cause him pain, too."

She nodded. "I'd hate it..." She looked down at her hands, palms up, silently. She regarded her past actions briefly. "I hate it." Her gaze shifted over to the mess of a hound at her side, curled up and just barely more dead than she. She pet him, sweetly.

The Sylvari sat back, watching. "Then you know what you have to do."

She looked up again, with a wry little grin. "Tie his soul to the earth using an ancient cursed artifact?"

The Sylvari chuckled. "No, child, I'm afraid I'm fresh out of such relics."

She sighed, smiling weakly. "I figured..." She turned her gaze back to her dear friend. "Well, Haeler. It's time for you to go... although, I guess it was your time a long time ago.. I'm sorry I kept you so long. Mimzie's cat is probably waiting for you, you know." She took a deep breath, her words wavering. "I'm sorry... give her a good chase for me, okay?"

The hound nodded weakly.. she had been slowly stemming and stopping the flow of energy from her body to his... her cheeks had the faintest trace of color again, at last.

She sniffled and wiped her nose on the back of her hand before giving her pet a final pat. "I'll see you again someday, I promise. And I hope you can forgive me."

The hound's eyes blinked once, took in one final gaze at its master, and finally closed. Its corpse gave one, last, shuddering breath before collapsing in on itself and laying still, save for the maggots that burrowed and wriggled beneath its flesh. Aleph patted the small human's shoulder.

"You did the right thing, Hollie. Death is a part of life, and it is something we must all face, either when confronted by our own, or when challenged by another's. Keeping him like that would have ended your life, such is the price of trying to stave off death."

She nodded, still quite shaken. She pet her dead hound's ears, once soft and plush, now matted and torn, with affection. "I know.. I just... I didn't think..."

The Sylvari took her into his arms, finally getting her away from the corpse's side. "I know, dear, I know. It's never easy."

She sighed into his embrace, cheek against the bark of his neck. "You're warm..."

"And you are only slightly warmer than death, child," he replied with mirth. She shook with what the Sylvari dearly hoped were giggles, stifled by her bodily state into wheezing coughs, choked by phlegm. Pneumonia was a threat, he knew. "Come, let us get you bathed and fed, I believe you have studied enough to know that you are still in danger, Haeler's body may have held his soul, but it was still dead, and you reek of rotting flesh... not to mention the risk of infection is rather high."

She nodded, and the Necromancer gently hefted her with him as he stood. She was so light, she must have been linked to the body for weeks.

Aleph Nulli, Fatebreaker, Necromancer, took the child from the sewers where she had hidden her pet, his way illuminated by his own red glow. It was never easy. They always tried.

He had, once, too.