Tobias

"I saw the island you mentioned."

"How was it?" Nathanos came back to his senses and looked at the mage's profile. Meryl's intense focus on the southern edge of the map had already given him a vague guess at the answer.

Meryl said with slight surprise, "Actually, it wasn't an island. It would be more accurate to call it a continent—a continent shrouded in dense mist, at the southernmost edge of Azeroth."

"What was on the land?"

"I only saw a group of Pandaren. It should be their homeland, full of life."

"How far away was it?" Nathanos asked the most crucial question.

"It took me five whole days of flying to see it, but the distance wasn't the biggest problem. The mist was." The mage shook his head and decided to let Nathanos witness it for himself. He tapped his staff against the ground. A blinding burst of light erupted from the tip of Atiesh, and the Witherer found himself standing above an expanse of sea. Yet he could neither feel the ocean breeze nor hear the waves.

"Look!" Meryl pointed ahead.

When Nathanos looked over, he too was stunned by the strange sight. An unnatural mist over the sea swallowed almost everything in front of him. Though the sun was bright, the mist showed no sign of dispersing. It resembled a storm, but there was no indication that it was spreading.

"This is definitely not a natural phenomenon," Nathanos said. "You said that continent lies beyond the mist."

Meryl nodded. "I nearly gave up. Luckily, magic kept pointing me in the right direction. It took me a long time to reach the destination."

"So the purpose of this mist is to stop outsiders from approaching the land within?" The Witherer's tone carried a hint of mockery. "It really