No, it's pointing out that she was ready to fight 5 AS until she heard forkroot then immediately shifted thought processes to think up a new strategy based on what information she knew from Nynaeve... it sets the entire stage for the rest of the scene. Egwene is realizing that she has more than being physically beat up to over come when it comes to Channeling.



Because she and Elayne lived through it! And it's what she used against Moghedien and it's part of the scene when Egwene calls Nynaeve out for lying to her ... Egwene would know as much about the affects of forkroot as Nynaeve herself. Let's be honest, what is there to tell about forkroot other than what it does to a Channeler?

Egwene thinks of Silviana's strength because she doesn't have any idea to what degree her own ability is currently affected. She's not been able to embrace the Source, in fact the AS don't know how much it will affect her either, thus the strong shields. She knows she'll be weaker, and given Silviana's strength she realizes there's no way she could break a shield at less than full ability. We know Silviana must be close to Amys in strength from the various behaviors (ordering Katerine around etc) so Egwene has to realize that if she struggled to break a shield Amys held on her Siliviana under these circumstances would have no problems.

It's clear she believes she can actually reach the Source by this point, but it's equally clear from the countless instances of her later channeling that she'll be very weak for hours!




Go re-read LOC Figs and Mice. It's obvious that a Channeler's ability slowly comes back. Elayne and Nynaeve lay there and slowly got closer and closer to reaching the Source by the minute. It's a clear indication that the affects of the tea would slowly degenerate.



That is your interpretation. In Figs and Mice we see Elayne and Nynaeve go from barely being able to move to walking around and talking in fairly short order, but neither of then Channel a spark. It seems rather obvious that ALL the effects would take time to wear off.



It amounts to the same thing. In the end Egwene would have battered down the Shield. Amys cannot hold Egwene for any length of time. Therefore neither could the weaker Silviana.



That's pure speculation. Egwene has no way of knowing if Silviana is better at shielding than Amys and she knows for fact that she could break Amys shield. Note that she also doesn't even try to attack the shield as her entire plan was always soem kind of surprise attack. Even if she thinks she may eventually break through Silviana she wouldn't be able to escape, so she doesn't try!