Guardian Relics and link skills

Using flame link on my ag of smiting build and I wanted to use the relic for extra damage and realized that when the relics despawn i instantly die.

Is it intended that their despawning counts also as their death? Obviously the link states if linked target dies you also die, however despawning isnt dying in the spirit of the actually gem. The spirit of the link gem is such that should your linked target incurr so much damage it dies then you would die. It seems silly that simply despawning would count as death in relation to the link skill.

Would it be possible to get some clarity on this?.

I tested by simply spawning a relic and then waiting, taking no damage and then wheb it despawns, I die. Thank you for reading and God Bless.

PoE1 doesn't even seem to distinguish "died" and "killed" conditions for minions. Expired minions count as killed for the purpose of #% increased Cast Speed if a Minion has been Killed Recently.
While in PoE2 these conditions differ

"

Minions whose durations expire or that are despawned by the player are considered to have died. However, effects that state they trigger when a Minion is Killed do not trigger in these cases. Minions are only Killed if they reach 0 life, though this can be caused by their summoner as well as enemies.

Not that it matters in this particular case since link skills state You die if Linked target dies and weren't designed around minions in the first place.

Aye, thanks yall. I appreciate yall taking the time to educate me! :)