The other day, there was a debate on this board about why Saerin had given Egwene the Oath Rod after learning of Elaida's capture. I was rereading the relevant scenes to see what I thought, and something leapt out at me.

On page 665, while thinking to herself, Egwene says that she fingered a "long, thin item" in a belt pouch that she had retrieved from the Tower "earlier that morning."

Yet, on page 724, while speaking to Silviana (after taking the oath against lying) Egwene says that she retrieved the oath rod from an Ally in the Tower last night.

She plainly references two different times of day in both scenes. One could argue that "earlier that morning" could refer to a time before dawn, but after midnight, and thus could qualify for "last night," but I feel that is a rather weak distinction.

We know that approximately 24 hours passed between when Egwene was rescued and when she ordered the assault on Tar Valon to begin.

If Saerin stayed in the central command post where she was receiving reports after the battle, Egwene would have difficulties getting to her unnoticed by the novices, sisters, and soldiers who were flowing in and out of that post. Logically, Egwene would have had to wait until Saerin had left the command post for her own rooms.

This means that Saerin likely did returned to her rooms after midnight, but well before dawn, else Egwene could not have thought of it as "earlier that morning" and "last night." Thus, she did also know that Elaida had been captured when Egwene requested the Oath Rod.

We see when Saerin receives the report of Egwene's success in the battle that she thought Elaida calling Egwene a "mere novice" was laughable. Combining that with the facts that the novices had followed Egwene and that more than 40 Aes Sedai had as well, and they had only lost 3 novices, Saerin could have likely made the conclusion that Egwene is the Amyrlin and so has the right to check out the Oath Rod.

Just some thoughts.