I think... - Edit 1
Before modification by Etzel at 23/03/2010 09:34:57 AM
Rand could see Asmo through the window from his location in the Caemlyn Palace as well, before Asmo walked away to get wine. It's also explicitely told in the books that Slayer spies on people. When Slayer saw that Asmo went in a certain direction, he jumbed there via TAR (as said, Slayer most likely knows the Palace quite well) and had the luck that Asmo apparently opened the first door on his way. Thus Slayer got the perfect opportunity to kill Asmo, especially since the Palace was largely deserted at this time. If Asmo wouldn't have opened the door, Slayer had simply waited for another chance to get Asmo.
In my view that makes more sense than e.g. the idea that Graendal randomly wandered in this part of the Palace for some obscure reason and without any disguise.
He was spying on him. Had the time/opportunity to jump into the dream world...run down the hall....get back out of the dreamworld....and Asmodean should have picked door number three. So then the question comes around to who commissioned Slayer to act?
That most likely Graendal sent Slayer to kill Asmo, because Asmo knew of Graendal's lair. She also ordered him to take the corpse, because she didn't want any traces pointing to her and probably liked the idea that Rand would wounder about Asmo's fate. This way she wouldn't risk her own life going near Rand & Co. It would also explain, why she is certain that Asmo is dead.
Otherwise it might have been an order by Lanfear, in case of her death.
As per Graendal wandering around the Palace herself. Well we know from this very book that she had a whole scheme brewing with Rhavin, Sammael, and Lanfear so she very well could have been in the palace. Why didn't she have a disguise? Well she just witnessed Rhavin's smack-down with Rand. She knew that there was a female channeler in the Palace, and that any channeling remotely near Rand would alert him of something going on. Would you risk disguising yourself?
Rahvin's death was at least a few hours ago. No reason for Graendal to stay that long in this part of the Palace. Besides that, one can invert weaves like a Mask of Mirrors. Plus, if Graendal had been such afraid to channel, your belief that Graendal used the One Power to kill Asmo, doesn't make much sense to me.
There are just a few things for Slayer that just don't add up. Not that I really consider author-speak canon, but RJ said that we knew the character who killed Asmodean. And that we knew of that character by that book. We had no idea who "slayer" was, and for all we knew, he was dead after Perrin shot him. We had no idea he was the shadow's gun-for-hire.
If one puts the clues from EotW till TFoH together (especially of course read TSR), as RJ said is necessary to figure the killer out, it becomes clear who or what Slayer is. Afer all, Slayer e.g. also hunts the renegade Fain, and he is basically described as an assassin in the Dark Prophecy, which also fits his obvious abilities when he battles Perrin in TAR.
And on a side note, it's a bit ironic that you tend to doubt Graendal's death, but think that readers had to believe that Slayer was definitely dead after Perrin shot him in the chest (explicitely not in the heart), although it was actually said that he fled from the Two Rivers on his horse. Slayer was just wounded.
Even Fain comments in the end of TSR that Slayer is likely still alive.
Considering the built-up for Slayer since book 1, it was clear that he didn't already die in TSR. And if one really needed an additional little clue for this, Slayer is mentioned in the beginning of LoC stalking in TAR.
And then the MO for Slayer isn't the same as his typical. Asmodean disappeared without a trace. No blood, no body, no harp...nothing. Yes, you could say that Slayer was ordered to not leave any evidence, but again, to what conclusion? The Forsaken who ordered the hit wanted it to look like a mystery? Oddly enough, I see the Forsaken making an example of anyone who betrayed them, let alone anyone who was weak. The example of this type of hit, which Slayer did do, would be the two Black Ajah sisters in the Stone of Tear. I mean, if the Forsaken wanted to really cause Rand issues, they could have rigged it so that the whole world found out that Rand's bard was the Forsaken Asmodean. That would have caused *major* issues with his allies. Instead, not a peep out of anyone...and we've seen each and every Forsaken who is still alive since then. The only bit of whatever that we have seen is that Graendal had her lips sealed when Sammael brought it up.
I explained that above.