C'Thun, Come into My Bowl

Theramore, Mage Tower.

Jaina received the Alliance dispatch and immediately summoned Deren.

"Something has happened in An'qiraj. The one you mentioned is about to come out and cause trouble!" Jaina said gravely. "Varian received an alarm from the Night Elves' Cenarion Hold there. The Qiraji are gathering in large numbers and seem poised to break through The Scarab Wall."

Deren smiled. "Stay calm, my Princess Jaina. It is not that serious. Don't you think it is strange? The War of the Shifting Sands was a thousand years ago, and the place has been quiet all this time. Now the insects suddenly want to come out. Has something happened recently?"

Jaina froze, then asked uncertainly, "You mean someone is causing trouble, which is why the insects are coming out?"

Deren shrugged. "I didn't say anything."

He took out a crystal and connected the call. "Ysera, Lab Eleven on the fifth floor of the Mage Tower. Get here quickly. I need to ask you something."

The moment he finished speaking, the floor opened with a whoosh, forming a Void Teleportation Array. Ysera, dressed in black and purple, rose from it. Seeing Deren, she called out, "Teacher, were you looking for me?"

Deren sent her the intelligence on the An'qiraj insects. "That one is coming out to make waves too. Do you think someone gave it an order? Otherwise, it had been quiet for a thousand years. There had been no recent solar eclipse, lunar eclipse, or magical tide, and no one had gone tomb-raiding or performed a blood sacrifice. Why had it suddenly come out to cause trouble?"

Holding the report, Ysera felt as though her mind was about to explode. Every premise in Deren's chain of reasoning pointed directly at certain realities of the dark world. "Right, there is absolutely no