While she takes great pains to seem as gentle outside as she is within, it is no secret that the woman known as Israa hails from Harad. Her delicate manners and soft hands do little to justify her wandering across the known world. What, exactly, brought her so far from the lands of her birth is largely a mystery; she has a dozen different stories of her self-imposed exile, each more fanciful than the last. She makes no claim that any of them are true.

It is plain to see that she is a learned woman, an expert where her letters and numbers are concerned, and accustomed to luxury. While she finds herself slow to speak of her birthplace for the sake of her own safety, Israa brings the lore of Near Harad with her. She calls herself an alchemist, a student of silver and glass, salt and flame; her research takes her from makeshift laboratories in town to dark forests and salty shores - and now to Bree.