Liandrin takes Egwene, Nynaeve, Min, and Elayne on a journey through the Ways, a dangerous shortcut that conveniently delivers them straight into the arms of the Seanchan.
Liandrin instructed Egwene and Nynaeve to meet her at the Ogier grove in Tar Valon. When they show up with Min and Elayne in tow, Liandrin is furious, but she’s too set on the journey to belabor it. She leads the group farther into a locked area of the grove, where the Tar Valon Waygate looms like a forgotten monument.
You’d think it would go without saying that blindly following an Aes Sedai you barely know into the Ways isn’t such a great idea. Especially when she’s on record as being a man-hater, and she’s supposedly leading you on a mission to save the boys from Emond’s Field from danger. They don’t even have an Ogier to read the Guidings — Liandrin just has this shitty piece of paper crumpled up in her pocket telling her where to go. And does any one of the women stop to say that maybe this isn’t such a great idea? Not for a second!
The journey through the Ways is remarkably uneventful, as journeys through the Ways go. Machin Shin is nowhere to be seen, and there are no defunct bridges or sudden changes of plan. Of course not, because Liandrin is actually delivering them right into the arms of the Seanchan.