Alaks is just glad to finally get her certificate. Better not make a fuss now! So she just quickly signs the papers and walks out of the exam with all career paths open and one friend fewer than when they began.
Unfortunately, it turns out, her particular talents aren't very well suited to wizard-y work, even when she can present a paper stating that it's all real wizard magic for sure definitely, so she ends up not getting much work over the years anyway, barely getting by with the occasional moving job. And meanwhile, that death at the exam keeps nagging on her mind. That shouldn't have happened. Those exams are supposed to be safe. And there were other strange things there, weren't there? Weird reactions from the judges, puzzles that didn't really seem to test their actual wizardness...
She retreats further and further, exploring this rabbit hole and learning all she can about the wizard examination process. All of that leads her one evening to end up in front of Ari's magic shop, just at closing time. The massive woman pushes the door open and lowers her head to get through the door. When she finds Ari, older and far more successful than he was the last time they saw each other, she eyes him with a serious expression for a very long moment. "I'm breaking into the Wizard Certification Bureau," she tells him in a serious tone. "To find out what happened to Hooligander. Are you in?"