During her grandmother's funeral, Clare begins to feel as if someone is watching her. Though she searches she finds no sign of this mysterious presence. As time goes on she encounters more and more strange phenomena. Electronics malfunction. Strange whisperings can be heard over the TV and radio. Clare takes this calmly, searching for an explanation. Eventually the cause makes itself known. The ghostly form of her grandmother appears, gray and crying silently. The ghost attempts to warn her but everything goes gray and she falls...
Clare finds herself in a desert of gray dust. There is a slight breeze billowing up vast clouds of dust. In the distance there is a vast darkness. Above the sky is obscured by clouds but a glow can be seen beyond the darkness.
As she approaches the darkness she makes out a massive gray tower. Gradually the ground begins to crunch under her step as the dust gives way to flakes of bone. The flakes become shards, then whole bones and skulls. Not all the bones look human but most of them do.
A winding staircase makes its way up the pillar of bones. Stepping over crumbling skulls, Clare makes her way up the tower. The wind continues to blow bring the smell of decay. A gap appears in the path where the bones collapsed. She tries to climb across but almost falls. A skeletal hand grabs her and pulls back up so she can climb across.
The path continues upward. Slowly the bones give way to dark metal (lead), until it becomes entirely metal save a few scattered remains. Veins of silvery metal appear in the wall. She is now above the fog of dust but still below the obscuring clouds. In the distance massive fires burn, blinding to look at. She begins to feel faint. Her head aches.
Also at this point she notices dark shades drifting in the air about her. They don't interfere but one says “You must lay the architect to rest.”
She pushes on and breaks free of the clouds. As she reaches the top, she is confronted by a guardian, a massive wolf with pale gray fur fluttering in the wind. It growls deeply, almost felt more than heard. She calmly walks up to it, trying to sooth the beast. It breaks up into hundreds of large gray moths. Clare reaches the top where millions of names are written on the top surface of the tower. She touches her finger to the metal surface and writes in it as easily as warm butter.
After recovering, Clare begins to see strange things wherever she goes. Item shatter or degrade when she touches them. Ghosts appear on street corners. And for a moment she she sees...someplace else. Where something like black flames with legs watches her. She chases it but it escapes.
She talks to about this to her pastor, Father Joseph. He attempts to consol her, explaining that there are strange and magical things in the world but she must be strong and not be tempted by the darkness in the world.
Shortly after that she encounters Colt when he notices her interacting with a reanimated cat. He offers to help her and introduce her to others like herself. Clare now using the shadow name Adele begins her training. Her instructors are Goes and Fakir. Though they have the theoretical background to teach her, they lack her raw skill with the Arcanum of Death, making the process difficult. She also receives a grounding in the Silver Ladder's philosophy including a lengthy discussion with Decima.