You mean... shortly before the Shadow got surprised by the new Rand?


Why would Alanna have anticipated Rand's abilty?

If she fled from Rand, it also makes no sense for her not to mask the bond. She did not, Rand can track her down any time he wishes. He was unsure, but only because of the distance.

If she fled Rand, there was also no point to her not Travelling from her own room, or hiding her escape. In short, she only had to mask the bond and open a gateway to anywhere in the world, and bye, bye she was free. Don't forget Alanna can also release the bond, if she wanted to escape from Rand.

The picture the whole situation paints is rather this:

Alanna's too great interest in the three boys didn't only attract Siuan's and the girls's attention. The BA noticed that too. Two women who were "too curious" got sent away for weeks if not months... This speaks of a scheme orchestrated by Siuan herself. Verin knew too much for comfort, and Alanna was behaving erratically and was becoming way too curious (this speaks against her being BA, she wasn't circumspect enough). Investigating the TR seems to have been an idea coming from the Shadow, the BA or already Mesaana. It was Sheriam's pet obsession that the AS had been culling the ability out of humanity. This caused massive friction between Blue and Red, as Sheriam was basically accusing the Reds, who were doing their job - male sparkers could not be left uncaptured, and there was no cure but gentling, or execution! - of gradually making the ability to channel disappear altogether, a gross exaggeration. Verin stood in Sheriam's camp, and so was Alviarin. I'd bet Galina was making sure the Reds' anger never wavered, and their enmity with the Blues worsened over this. Right before the ta'veren appeared, this was the dividing political crisis at the Tower.... all engineered by BA players, if you notice. Both Elayne and the TR "wondergirls" were a blessing for the BA. Egwene and Nynaeve, their "old blood" from the isolated TR, seemed to prove Sheriam's theory, and if she could find more she could make a lot of mileage on that. Elayne, on the other hand, vindicated the Red Ajah - clearly the decline in average strength had nothing to do with gentling men. So with the girls, the BA had fuel to deepen the crisis and enmity between the two sides.

Anyway... it seems to me it's Sheriam who insisted to get Siuan to send sisters to the TR, with two goals in mind. Openly, this was in the hope more powerful girls could be found, and secretely this was also a Shadow-minded effort at finding information about the three boys, for Sheriam herself (she's quite ambitious), or for the SC of the BA, or even Mesaana already. Siuan accepted the proposal. She saw an opportunity to send away sisters that were problematic to her: Verin and Alanna. Verin probably suited Sheriam just fine, of course. For Verin, this was an opportunity: she could learn important things about the three ta'veren, she could puzzle out what Alanna was up to with her over the top curiosity, determine once and for all if she was BA or not too. Above all, this was giving Verin much needed liberty. Her "endgame" was coming, and with TG approaching, the Forsaken had started appearing, and Alviarin no doubt was getting more directive. Staying at the Tower too long, especially after getting involved with Rand and co., meant Verin could get all sort of damaging orders she could not disobey... She was already in a bit of a pickle as it was... we know she had no choice to report Siuan's hunt for the BA and her chosen hunters, that she had been ordered to give the girls information about the BA who left for Tear and so on. She probably even had no choice but to reveal too much about Siuan's and Moiraine's little conspiracy, and what they were up to in TGH. It really was time for Verin to slip away, far from Alviarin's reach. Siuan's trust was suddenly making her way, way too precious to the BA... and way too dangerous for the Light.

Verin followed a similar M.O. with Rand. She left right after the Shadow's massive attack on Rand in Tear, and shorty after he had heard Logain's accusations against Taim It was obvious to her not only it was time to see to her endgame, as TG was on the brink of starting, but also clearly from what she knew (even though it's wrong) the Shadow had now decided it was time to kill Rand. It was extremely dangerous for Verin to remain near Rand. She could get devastating orders from one of the Forsaken at any time, and at least Mesaana knew her. She left the oblique message about the BA to Rand, her Oaths prevented her from saying more, and vanished.

Nothing in Verin's POVs and scenes post TDR suggests she had big doubts that Alanna was BA. After her behaviour in the TR, which would have put pressure on Verin to make sure and use her tricks to learn for certain (if she didn't already) - pretty much like she's done with Cadsuane later, it's pretty much certain Verin has concluded Alanna wasn't BA.

Verin left a letter to her, and Alanna apparently wrote a or some letter(s) of her own before she left (the empty ink bottle she left in her room).

Rand was also tipped by someone that there was a DF among the High Lords. Upon his return from TV (he travelled straight from TV to Tear, it seems), he merely gathered the HL, and found out who it was. He also acted on the information Verin left him about Alsalam, confirming he had read her letter left in Tiana's care. It's almost certainly Verin who tipped Rand about a DF High Lord (she probably spotted one at the DF social, the same way Carridin did), and others, and most likely also about Black Sisters she had compelled to serve him, like Elza (too late!) and Fera.

And this is where it returns to Alanna. One of the things, or even the main topic, Verin had to discuss in her letter to Alanna was the fact the Shadow, BA and most likely Forsaken, knew of Alanna's bond to Rand. Verin tried to keep it secret as much as she could, but after Alanna's collapse in Cairhien, she lost control of the situation. Cadsuane learned of the bond then, and learned Travelling, and then the WO "screwed up" by deciding that it was time for the newly sworn sisters (incl. Elza) to go to Rand. Verin was already highly suspicious of Cadsuane's allegiance, probably much worried when she learned Cadsuane intended tp start using Alanna to track down Rand, and then she had the certainty that even if she was wrong about Cadsuane, at least one BA was going along, and would no doubt puzzle out Alanna had bonded Rand. This also meant the secret was no longer safe with Verin either. The minute another BA near Rand knew, Verin could no longer risk hiding the information from the Forsaken, if they visited her, especially from Mesaana, who has the habit of asking questions she already knows the answers to, just to test her pawns... The sum of all these reasons: keeping an eye on Elza, getting to the bottom of the question of Cadsuane's allegiance, keeping an eye on Alanna to make sure the Shadow wasn't using her, making sure if Elza had or not puzzled out the bond and so on, is probably what convinced Verin she had no choice but to follow Rand even to Far Madding, where she clearly would have preferred never to set foot again.

She seemd to have tought herself safe in hiding with Rand after the Cleansing, but the massive Shadowspawn attack convinced her she was running out of time, and it was too dangerous for Rand to stay close to him, as the Forsaken clearly had tracked him down, and intended to kill him.

Alanna may or not have gotten a specific mission from Verin, but for certain she's been told she must go in hiding and why, and must be very cautious about it, because she was surrounded by spies from the Shadow... Elza, Fera, a non-identified High Lord and then there were all those Verin may not have been sure of... sworn sisters she had not compelled like Bera/Kiruna, sisters from Cadsuane's group,unknown DF, spies for the Forsaken. That's why Alanna was so cautious. That's why she didn't Travel from her room. She had to leave open the possibility she had gone to hide in Tear, to delay the Shadow and avoid any pursuit.

My hunch, but it's only a possibility, is that perhaps Verin begged Alanna to go hide in the middle of nowhere, with retired sisters she knew for certain she could trust, namely Vandene and Adeleas. I think she had sent Moiraine there too in TGH, and taught her balefire before she left. Verin would have expected Alviarin to give the order to a Black to hunt Moiraine when she vanished. Alviarin may have ordered Liandrin to follow one lead, and Verin to seek the Hunt for the Horn, and kill Moiraine if she had secretely gone back to Rand, and otherwise to follow Rand.
By sending Moiraine to the Namelles, Verin may have calculated that when the Shadow tracked her, likely a single BA, she would plan to ambush Moiraine and Lan... and fall on 3 sisters and two warders...


It now seems obvious why Verin left Tomas behind. Alviarin must have known Tomas was a DF., and ordered her to leave him behind. Leaving Tomas behind meant Alviarin could use him to report Rand's general whereabouts to the Forsaken, if they asked her, or know his whereabouts for her own benefit (with the side benefit that Siuan could use Tomas the same way as well, which balanced things out for Verin). Because of Tomas, Alviarin would have known Verin had be in the far west, like AD or TH... and this explains why Verin couldn't hide much secrets from the BA when she arrived to TV: the risk was too high Alviaring was fairly sure Verin had managed to attach herself to Rand's group. Indeed, one wonders if Verin's graceful acceptance to be sent away from Rand when (no doubt by Moiraine) asked, spending months on an itinerary (over the Caralain Grass) that would give absolutely no clue to his intents or hiding place, was an intentional scheme of Verin to mislead the BA after the events of Falme.

Verin would not know the Namelle sisters have come out of retirement, gone to Salidar and eventually both got killed. They're abandonned house in Tiffan's Wells, in a remote area of Arafel, still makes a good hiding place for Alanna. I think it's not impossible Verin begged Alanna tp consider passing Rand's bond to Vandene, a woman Verin trusted and that the Shadow would never find, and would never learn had the bond. Why? Because Alanna was a danger as long as she held the bond, because the Shadow knew. If she passed the bond, she could afterward mislead the Shadow into thinking she still had the bond.

That the Shadow could use Alanna to track Rand down is only one danger. The Shadow had plenty of other spies, incl. some who were with Rand. They also have the trick of tracking down ta'veren in the Pattern, but it's fairly unlikely Verin knows about this.

The bigger dangers were rather than Alanna could be captured and use to bait Rand into a trap, or that she could be killed at the worst possible moment during TG, to drive Rand insane, as warders always do when their AS die... Rand's redudant bonds probably prevent him from the "warder frenzy' if one of the four bonds is cut, but Verin proababy doesn'rt know this (she doesn't even know Aviendha exists. Aviendha left with Mat for Salidar before Dumai's Wells)

As strong possibility is that Alanna hid a letter for Rand with someone, letting him know why she's gone away, and that he musn't come to her. At the time her returned to Tear and learned of Alanna's vanishing, Rand would still not have gotten that letter.

If Verin left Alanna with a mission beside hiding, it's fairly likely she intended Alanna to attract Rand through the bond, letting him feel her need for him, at a specific time and place. Verin might have had an opinion when Rand ought to go at SG. Another possibility is that Verin left Alanna deal with specific DFs in the Borderlands she knew about, or told her she must investigate the people the rulers left in charge when they went south.