I'm currently doing my first ever reread from start to finish. I am at The Fires of Heaven, and I was just flooded by information that, IIRC, is directly contradicted a little later in the story. I was wondering if anyone could shed some light.

In TFoH, not long after Birgitte is ripped out of TAR, Elayne tells her she has been bonded as a Warder, and Birgitte says, "I think I remember hearing a tale of a female Warder, but it was in a life so long ago that I cannot remember more than that." I don't have the quote easily to hand, but IIRC, one of the Forsaken (Semi?) speculates about the warder bond while torturing an Aes Sedai and her Warder. Her thoughts run something along the lines of: The Warder bond. Now that was a surprise. It was interesting what these so-called Aes Sedai had come up with Indicating that the Warder bond did not exist in the AoL. So If the Warder bond was a new creation in the Third Age, why would Birgitte remember it from a lifetime so long ago to be hard to remember? Is it a red herring? Is it just another finger pointed at the cyclical time structure? Is it a discrepancy?

Just a few minutes later Birgitte says, "You saved my life, Daughter-Heir of Andor. I will keep your secret and serve you as Warder." IIRC, Elayne has not yet told Birgitte that she is the Daughter-Heir of Andor. If it has happened, it was off-screen. Much later, as the three women prepare to leave the menagerie, Elayne tells Cerandin, the Seanchan s'redit handler who she is and offers amnesty and safety. Cerandin laughs in her face in disbelief that she is really who she says she is, and Birgitte says, "Telling her you were heir to a throne! Really! If you are going to be Aes Sedai, you had better start practicing how to bend the truth, not break it into shards." Even later still, Nynaeve makes some comment about Elayne not being in her mother's palace; Birgitte and Elayne go have a talk. Strange, since she called her Daughter-Heir from the beginning.