They would just have to BELIEVE they were dying.


As to them being so arrogant and evil that they couldn't ever imagine someone repenting... that seems ridiculous. In thousands of years, there's never been someone who's tried to repent, or become a traitor to the Dark One?

We see with regular Darkfriends, some of them take the oaths, never expecting them to come into play (I believe the family that hosted Fain in Cairhein was like this, later in the series?). I'd say it's pretty likely that at least some of these Darkfriends say something like "What? No! That oath was a long time ago, I won't do what you say!"

And then they get killed, and any other DFs in the area start following orders out of fear.



So, obviously, the DF organization has at least some experience with traitors. You don't think the Black Ajah, a group so paranoid that they have magical oaths restricting their members, would have this happen, at least once?