Emishtar was a local woman in an alternate where a small group of Crosstime slave traders had established an illegal portal. She had been enslaved and found herself working next to Annette Klein, who had been enslaved while in another alternate and transported to the illegal alternate as well. Emishtar spoke a Semitic language that distantly resembled the Arabic Annette spoke; Annette surmised that she was most likely a descendant of the Phoenician Carthaginians that inhabited Spain before the Roman conquest (an event that did not occur in this alternate).