After being out of the White Tower for nearly a month, Alviarin tries to secretly return by way of a storeroom three levels below the White Tower Library. She had Traveled back from Tremalking, and has to channel off the red mud soiling her clothes; Mesaana has made it clear that none should know about her ability to Travel. She dwells angrily on her subjugation to Mesaana and her concerns about her control over Elaida do Avriny a'Roihan. She enters through the 9th depository assuming that the arithmetic books there make it one of the least visited depository. However, when she exits into the main corridor, the librarians Zemaille and Aiden encounter her.