Maybe., although I'm a bit afraid it sounds like a typical situation for which, previously in the series, RJ left us draw our own conclusions and never clarified an issue (he tended to do that a lot whenever it's a matter of giving too concrete explanations about what Shai'tan does or want).

It might be why Brandon is so uneasy to confirm anything. Jordan didn't spell it out, and by pointing out to Semirhage's comment, Brandon is giving us his opinion of the most likely explanation, but he won't commit himself since he doesn't know for sure. It's not really a good time to come out and tell us "you'll never know the answer, but personally I think Semirhage was probably right".





While I assumed she was in that state after experiencing Shaidar Haran then Semirhage back-to-back.



Verin's weave was in truth described as extremely complex (it wasn't crude, she was just weaving extremely slowly and cautiously, because it was so comple, perhaps in the fact it was "patch-up" even more complex if less efficient than Chosen-style compulsion (though its effects had limitations full compulsion as the Chosen do it don't have) and she was also convinced it left no trace for delving. Graendal too is able to weave very subtle and virtually undetectable compulsion, only not when she weaves it like a hammer...

Verin's was not quite the compulsion weave Semirhage was familiar with either. It's quite possible Semirhage delved Elza and decided to wait because she was puzzled by the weave (especially if Verin was right it was almost undetectable) and had no time to figure it out for certain. Notice that even as a top Restorer Semirhage wasn't looking forward to unravel compulsion because it failed so often, even for her. Most times it works much like what happened to Nynaeve when she tried. She unravelled it, but the person died. A failed attempt might have jeopardized the mission. Perhaps Semirhage knows weaves to stimulate repressed memories and get Elza to become conscious of what the compelled orders were. Knowing that, she would have no need to try to unravel the "weird compulsion" on Elza anymore.

Semirhage also has tricks to make sure if Elza would obey her or if her compulsion would interfere. Those tricks might explain Elza's dazed state!



If she feared enough she might fail, yes she would I think. Better tell SH "I can't do it safely, I need her for the DB" than fail and tell SH "Oops... do you have any other woman available to complete the mission?".





It's a valid explanation as well. We have to pick the one we prefer, as for this we'll never get a straight answer in the books (unless from a Q&A, and that'd be quite a useless question to ask!)

That bit about compulsion had one purpose only: to show us that even Semirhage had very serious misgivings about unravelling compulsion. That was there strictly to raise the stakes for Nynaeve later, and foreshadow that Rand had asked her almost the impossible, because even Semirhage didn't like attempting it. It doesn't really matter if Semirhage tried and succeeded or delayed until after the mission, that is.. we were not supposed to know for sure.