"Uh, yeah, that's...kind of a long story," he can't help but sound apologetic as he says it. "Abridged version? I died, um, again, and a race of aliens helped me, uh, achieve an understanding of a higher plane of existence. My consciousness, it," he makes an illustrative wave upward, "well, it Ascended, and left my body once it died. I don't remember much of what I experienced on that plane."

"You met me," Aliyah murmurs. "Not in exactly this shape, perhaps."

He acknowledges her with a final scratch behind the ears and glances back up at Julian. "See, she's just...a part of yourself, externalized in a physical shape. Well, as physical as it can get in dreams, anyway."