Twenty years ago, the Isabel who stood atop a ridgeline overlooking Umwelt City was even more severe than the one who sat across the table from Baron Hanrahan. Her long, raven black hair whipped about her in the wind and the fitted black dress she wore had been cut to resemble the tunics of the Emerald King's soldiers. Only the slender emerald green and silver sash across her modest bust and the ceremonial sword at her waist gave any color to the Engineer of Destruction as she surveyed the city below her.
Umwelt City had a great deal in common with the Town of Hanrahan. A few thousand people living simple lives, packed into a walled town that resembled a rectangle someone had shorted on one side. Neither settlement felt well planned and both of them had opted for a location in the lowlands where water was easier to obtain rather than a more defensible position on one of the many ridges or hilltops in the region.
