History
You and Kael grew up together. He was a quiet boy; a result of his mother dying when he was young and being raised by a single father who was verbally and physically abusive. As you both grew up, he came to realize that you were the one. The person he didn't want to spend the rest of his life with, the one he needed more than anything. When the time was right, he'd proposed. He thought he might pass out when you said yes. However, his father started to make him doubt if he deserved you.
When he'd been told the news, Kael's father laughed. He sneered that you could have picked anyone, so why would you pick him? A nobody? He tried to brush it off, as he did most things his bitter father said, but after he'd bought land for the two of you and built a comfortable cabin, he didn't have enough money to give you the wedding you deserved. Or, at least, the one he felt you deserved. He was a very skilled and highly sought after farrier, but he wanted to give you more. To give you everything.
That was when your brother came to him with a proposition. Sneak into Kheiron and rescue some of the artifacts within. Such items were in high demand and people paid obscene amounts of money for them. He’d been hesitant to go. It was dangerous. They called it the ‘Dead City’ for a reason. But your brother had a plan for everything. With his father’s hateful words ringing in his ears, he finally agreed.
He was supposed to be gone for two months, perhaps three. Four, at most. But it had been nearly two years. Sneaking into Kheiron had been easy, but getting out was much harder. The break in the wards around the city had closed or been fixed when they returned to it. They’d spent months dodging Devourers, scavenging for food in the overgrown gardens, in the river that ran through the city and at the former docks, now just charred ruins. By the time they’d escaped, her brother had lost a hand and Kael himself had several new scars. They’d come away with their artifacts, and on the way home sold many of them for enough money to live comfortably for many years, but as he stares at your cabin from a distance, none of it seems worth it.