Another AS does the channeling according to NS - Edit 1
Before modification by darius_sedai at 17/07/2010 10:02:47 PM
Mesaana could have channelled a protective layer (like gloves) not to touch directly the OR. It's theorically possible, but she would have been surrounded by sisters looking closely at what she was doing (and ready to shield her if she failed the test).
However I think there's an even simpler way to achieve the same result. Not only Mesaana had to hold the OR, but she had to channel a thread of Spirit into the numerals to activate it (it seems the person to be bound must be the one channelling or at least it's how the AS do it? I'd have to reread the scenes with the OR involved to be sure).
However I think there's an even simpler way to achieve the same result. Not only Mesaana had to hold the OR, but she had to channel a thread of Spirit into the numerals to activate it (it seems the person to be bound must be the one channelling or at least it's how the AS do it? I'd have to reread the scenes with the OR involved to be sure).
New Spring
Just Before Dawn
For an instant, Tamra hesitated, as though uncertain which of them to bind first, but only for an instant. Moiraine promptly raised her hands in front of her, palms upward, and Tamra placed the Rod there. This was the price Siuan had exacted, a favor to be granted, for Moiraine's yielding precedence through the oval. Needless to say, she had not revealed her "favor" until Moiraine accepted. She would become Aes Sedai first by minutes. It was so unfair!
But there was no time for thinking of how she should have known Siuan was up to something when she gave in so easily. The glow of saidar surrounded Tamra, and she touched the Oath Rod with a thin flow of Spirit.
Moiraine closed her hands around the Rod. It felt like glass, only somehow smoother. "Under the Light and by my hope of salvation and rebirth, I vow that I will speak no word that is not true." The Oath settled on her, and suddenly the air seemed to press harder against her skin.
Tamara actually weaves the flows when raising Moiraine and Siuan. But it seems like in TGS the Sisters we saw do the unbinding/rebinding wove the flows personally so it's hard to say. If I were in Egwene's shoes I'd have someone other than the Sister taking the oaths weave the flows.