The Coming Dark

In his youth, Uldman Dark had been Assistant Uldman of the University of Tsar Library. He'd long been interested in astronomancy, and fancied himself something of a scholar.
Astronomancy is a weak magic, and often looked down on for good reason. Divine magic is more powerful and safer, and arcane magic is more versatile and easy to learn. Like chemistry and dowsing it has been relegated to the level of a historical footnote.
Still, Uldman found himself fascinated by it and how it tied to to the forces of life and death, and eventually secured the funding to mount and expedition to a small ruin in the northern Mosswood. If his research was accurate there had been a hermit practicing astronomancy there less than 150 years ago. He stocked up on provisions, and made his way from Tsar to Tarren's Junction, and finally to the hamlet inside Fort Ironbark. There he hired some local hunters-slash-thugs to lead him the rest of the way. 
The journey was a disaster. While they reached the ruin easy enough, it had become a home for some particularly vicious skeletons, and the hunters were wiped out. Uldman managed to seal himself inside the ruins, along with the bodies of many of the hunters. He did have one piece of luck; the hermits astronomancy device, along with his notes, had survived the centuries. 
With no escape and no way to fight, Uldman carefully rationed what resources he had left, and went to work. What might have been a minute's consideration for Laniss took Uldman over 5 weeks of intensive study. The first person he attempted to bring back from the dead merely exploded. The second one melted, then exploded. The third simply melted. The fourth screamed continuously until Uldam was forced to slit its throat. The fifth had only the skeleton animate, and shuffled around like a zombie fours before finally collapsing.
On his sixth attempt he was successful, and brought Kendra back to life, over a month since her belly was split open by a skeleton's rusty sword. Uldman packed the machine and what supplies were left, and the two fought a retreat from the ruins before fleeing to Fort Ironbark
Kendra for her part was a skilled ranger although she lacked all formal education, and was not even literate. Her life had been spent raiding ruins and salvaging scrap when the days were good, and robbing caravans when the pickings were slim. She was quiet and callous, and took a level of care of her weapons and armor that bordered on obsessive.
They formed a strange pair, together not out of love or respect but rather a strange kind of lustful envy. Uldman saw her as something denied to him by his weak frame and nervous disposition, a powerful warrior and slayer of undead, who needed no civilization to survive and could provide for herself. Kendra saw him as a miracle man, who could bring back the dead on his own terms, with no use for books. Eventually this matured into something approaching respect, and they bought a house together in Zelkor's Ferry. The area was remote and wild enough to sate Kendra's need to hunt and to easily be able to be by herself, while being just close enough to a trade route to give Uldman access to the supplies he needed to continue his studies.
It's possible that over the years Kendra's antisocial tenancies would have landed her in one of the more violent gangs in the Forest of Hope, while Uldman's tinkering and growing obsession with death would have made him a prime candidate for recruitment into the Death's Head cult.
But before that terrible future could come to pass, the Great Downward Engineering company changed both their lives. Uldman (with the help of a strong talking to by Aggy) saw necromancy for the evil it was, and shifted his studies to focus on the other possibilities of astronomancy, while Kendra saw the gangs of the Forest of Hope each meet bloody ends, causing her to rethink her own mortality, and perhaps calmed some of the fire in her soul.
These days, Udman is writing his dissertation on his findings, and hopes that he can secure funding to start his own adventuring group (led by Kendra of course) to perhaps track down other leads on astronomancy, and to become a world expert on the forgotten craft. Kendra endorses this plan, and secretly aims to use the proceeds of the work to fund her own private dream: one of those magical headbands that may let her finally see the world as Uldman sees it, and perhaps even enroll in the University of Tsar herself.
Tonight, they both sit inside their house. Uldman furiously writing in his study, Kendra carefully oiling her crossbow in the dining room. They have the windows shut tight against the terrible red glow coming from the scar in the sky, and busy themselves with their work If they are afraid, neither shows it.