The Eastern Kingdoms, Tirisfal Glades. This was the heartland of the Kingdom of Gilneas, and the site of Lordaeron City.
Flowers flourished here. Generation after generation, the Kingdom of Lordaeron had opened up the land, each wave of settlers carrying on the work of those before them. Farmland stretched as far as the eye could see.
Farms and estates dotted the landscape.
Compared with the Alterac Mountains, the difference was immense. Given a choice, anyone would rather take a holding in Tirisfal Glades than in the Alterac Mountains. After all, how could the mountains compare with these glades? The two were not even in the same league. Although the Alterac Mountains covered a vast area, they were undeveloped wilderness, with forests everywhere. Land like that needed development, and development was what cost the most money.
At that moment, on a farm somewhere in Tirisfal Glades, a thin man clad in a black robe strode through the waves of heat beneath the blazing summer sun.
Despite the sweltering weather, he kept his face completely concealed. Not a trace of it showed-except for the eyes he needed to see his way.
The Black-Robed Man entered a farm. It was an ordinary farm, no different from any other, with grain growing in its fields and a blue brick-and-tile house standing among them. He followed the path straight to the house. Without any courtesy or even a knock, he pushed at the door. It creaked open, and he stepped inside.
The house had a very simple layout, with nothing unusual about it. Its main room held nothing at all and looked utterly empty.
There were two doors in the house. Even after the Black-Robed Man entered, no one came out, as though no one lived there. Yet black smoke kept rising from the chimney