Bashere's suspicious decision

[benr]

All of this is very interesting, and I must admit I took it at my several readings to mean that Bashere now agrred with someone who told him he needed to be careful of personal attacks on himself, his family, or his command, for whatever reason (the seal, or just to eliminate him).  He was agreeing to increase the guard on his wife and/or command.  Much of what I have read in this thread has made me doubt my impression as shallow, but not discard it completely.  

[Bob T Dwarf]

benr -

 

That too is a different theory.  The problem I see with it is why the need to be so secret with Tumad?  Even if there is a threat within his own command, anybody with the intent of harming either him or his wife would ( or certainly should ) assume that Bashere would take extra precautions both places.

 

Don't feel bad about the multiple readings.  I'm embarrassed that it took me as long as it did to get beyond "it could only be Logain."  I'm more embarrassed that it took even longer to figure out why it might be somebody else.

[benr]

Bob - no, I thought he didn't want his wife to hear; you know how she is...

[Bob T Dwarf]

Well, THAT is true.

 

And, I agree, if she were to find out she might be a bit - displeased(?)

 

Yours certainly has the benefit of requiring the fewest other things to be true in order to be right.

[icspots]

I thought there were only 6 black coats and whatever AS were bonded with those.  Logain was one, and the guy who was with Loial...  oh well...

 

I just read through KoD again (actually I have the last chapter left but oh well) and I swear I remember a comment about 25 Ash'aman.  On a quick look through I couldn't find anything on numbers aside from Rand thinking it (the battle) was a near thing and would have gone the other way except for the Ash'aman and extra Aes Sedai.  The 51 Aes Sedai..... well we know all 51 who attacked the BT were bonded and they were all bonded by Logain's faction.  It would stand to reason that if he was going to take out a group of them while trying to get the BT fixed up by Rand that he would get all of them away from Taim while he could.

 

OK, icspots.  Good alternative theory.

 

The question isn't whether the Sisters could have kept him from leaving it's whether Logain would have been foolish enough to test that.  It's also whether the AS in Cairhien ( all of whom have sworn fealty to Rand ) would see it as anything other than their sworn duty to try to stop Logain whether they really could stop him or not.

 

My bet is they would see it that way, and that Logain wouldn't push the issue.  He set out on his mission to try to solve what he sees as a developing problem, not start an even bigger one.

 

A second issue that you raise is whether the resident AS would put any credence in what Logain's AS had to say?  All AS who have not been bonded see Asha'man bonding AS as an abomination.  Given how they behave toward any AS who has been stilled, I don't think, "I didn't have a choice, but it's really OK." would carry any weight with them.  Aes Sedai are ALWAYS supposed to be the ones in control of any situation.  Despite their own defeats and somewhat involuntary fealty to Rand, they would see Logain's AS as weak and deranged.  Besides, Logain's AS don't know why Logain wants to find Rand, or what he intends to do if/when he does.  They don't really have any way to allay suspicions.  In fact, Logain may not have even let them know he was seeking Rand at all.

 

Even a, "We have to go out recruiting." plea wouldn't work.  Saidin is still tainted.  Men who channel go mad and destroy all order and decency.  Helping the BT to grow is not something any Cairhien AS would allow unless Rand himself ordered it, and Rand isn't there.

 

In short, once Logain gets to Cairhien, he's stuck until Bashere shows up.

 

Even with my 'Logain sent a messenger' theory I still think that Bashere Traveled with Logain and Co. to Cairhien vs. riding..... so aside from the man who Tumad goes to see being different it's still the theory you're disputing.

 

I don't think Logain would have felt any qualms about testing whether the Aes Sedai in Cairhien would retain him..... he would have just made a gateway and left.  Also some of that dead time could have been him trying to track down all of the false leads that Rand laid about prior to going to Far Madding.

 

To comment on the non-bonded sisters shunning the bonded ones..... who says the sisters there know what's going on with them?

[mrabbott]

icspots,

 

Chapter 24 in CoT is when Bashere and Logain arrive.  In it says over half a dozen black coated Asha'man (so between 6 and 12) and 8 AS.  Now, these are the people that can be seen standing outside in the rain.  There might be more hiding as to not frighten anyone, but I can not remember and am not that far along.

[Bob T Dwarf]

icspots -

 

It's pretty difficult to keep the Bonding hidden once they actually arrive.

 

I mean, it's apparent that Logain and his Asha'man aren't prisoners.  The way Bonders and their Warders behave around each other is entirely obvious to anyone who is familiar with Bonding.

 

As far as believing Logain and Bashere Traveled to Cairhien together, where's the evidence?  Why did it take them another week to ten days to find Rand once they got to Cairhien?  Remember, both Logain and Bashere have imminent threats to tell Rand about.  They're both in a hurry.

[Bob T Dwarf]

mrabbot -

 

That sounds about right as I remember it.  Not all of the women were bonded by men who Logain could trust.  In fact, there really are a remarkably small number of Asha'man that Logain trusted enough to bring along.

[Bob T Dwarf]

The thing that blows me away though, is benr's theory.

 

It's simple.  It's elegant.  It fits the situation.  It fits what Bashere was thinking and what he said.

 

All it requires is that the mysterious man be one of Bashere's own officers who'd approached him about increasing security.  Something like, "Boss, I think we need to beef up our standing guard force.  Here's what I'd like to do...".

 

Nothing like what I've thought of, but apt and dead simple.

 

Of everything I've read and even my own theory, objectively, I'd have to say it stands the best chance of being correct.

 

Naturally, I still prefer my own idea, but benr's idea is still absolutely terrific.

[mrabbott]

icspots -

 

It's pretty difficult to keep the Bonding hidden once they actually arrive.

 

I mean, it's apparent that Logain and his Asha'man aren't prisoners.  The way Bonders and their Warders behave around each other is entirely obvious to anyone who is familiar with Bonding.

 

As far as believing Logain and Bashere Traveled to Cairhien together, where's the evidence?  Why did it take them another week to ten days to find Rand once they got to Cairhien?  Remember, both Logain and Bashere have imminent threats to tell Rand about.  They're both in a hurry.

 

Well, Logain had to go back and get the rest of the Asha'man he trusted and convince them to go(I don't remember them all traveling together originally otw to Caemlyn).  They could have been anywhere and him having to use the AS at the Black Tower to find them (I doubt if they left they would have taken them with them).  

 

Perhaps they were in Cairhien for a few days trying to find hints where Rand was.  I doubt they knew Rand had run off with AS who left their warders behind (what AS do that?) before they got there and happened to stumble across it.  What extremes did they have to go through to get them to come along or find them?

 

Did they have to get some additional supplies knowing that wherever Rand was, would not have enough?

 

I, personally, do not look at the timeline - there are too many variables that could effect the time.

 

I go by my earlier post.  Who in Caemlyn would need Basheres help to leave and for what reasons?  None that I can think of.

[Bob T Dwarf]

Logain did have to ride back to the Farm and gather those he trusted before he set out.

 

Logain and all of his people did arrive together in Cairhien:

"A party of sisters has entered the city, Samitsu.  I rode like a madwoman to get here ahead of them,but they could be riding in at this moment.  There are Asha'man with them, and one of the Asha'man is Logain."

 

That's while they're all still in Dobraine's rooms just after Samitsu had healed him as best she could.

[mrabbott]

The only thing that I wonder about is, if Logain is the guy (which I still think he is), who are the few extra people Bashere is talking about?  I mean... Oh wait.. brain storm

 

Maybe Logain just wanted Bashere and a small party to come along to help find Rand for him, but, since the attack, Bashere decided to pack everyone since now he needed something to pass along to Rand also.

 

I mean, why ride from Caemlyn to Cairhien when he could have found a way to go back into Caemlyn and convince Elayne to have someone come and make a gateway for them all since the news is urgent?  I mean, someone with a status of Lord Bashere would be able to get through the beseigers to get into Caemlyn to talk to Elayne.  He has enough help with him (Aeil and his soldiers) to bully himself in if need be.

[Bob T Dwarf]

Remember what Bashere told Bael: 

"Elayne Trakand would not like that, Bael, and if you've forgotten what it's like being a young man, that means Rand al'Thor won't like it."

.

.

"We are outlanders, Bael.  That counts in Andor."

 

Bashere can't go into Caemlyn.  It would upset everything Rand is trying to allow Elayne to achieve on her own.

 

He didn't take all 9000+ of his troops.  He just took an honor guard of about 100.

 

 

[bronnt]

As far as believing Logain and Bashere Traveled to Cairhien together, where's the evidence?  Why did it take them another week to ten days to find Rand once they got to Cairhien?  Remember, both Logain and Bashere have imminent threats to tell Rand about.  They're both in a hurry.

 

It appears to me that this is the crux of your argument-that there's a lot of missing time involved for people who are traveling.  I'd like to point out at least this much-Rand wasn't still during this point of time.  We know that when Logain arrived in Cairhien, it was while Rand was still in Far Madding.  They couldn't have immediately traveled in to Far Madding for obvious reasons, and it would have taken a while to realize they could use the Warders who had been left behind to tack the Aes Sedai.

 

After that, Rand went to Shadar Logoth.  The Warders would have been aware of this, as Shadar Logoth is roughly west of Cairhien and Far Madding is roughly south.  Even if the Warders had been rounded and all agreed to go with Logain at this point, none of that party would have been willing to go to Shadar Logoth.

 

After Shadar Logoth, there's about a week worth of missing time with Rand. I could use your logic and say that, since it's not explicitly stated that they were in the Tear from the ending of that battle to the point where Logaine and Bashere arrives, that Rand was up to something sinister, or may have in fact gone to the Borderlands only to find that all the rulers had left.  Or perhaps he was in Shara, learning how to make silk.  It's implied that he was resting in Tear, though.  I think it's possible they have made gateways to a few other places before settling on Lord Algarin's manor, to make the trail cold.

 

At this point, the party of Logain and Bashere have probably both realized they can use the Warders and additionally convinced the Warders to come with them.  The Warders, of course, would have initially been suspicious, even hostile, toward the AM since they had obviously bonded AS.  But at this point they've probably settled that dispute, and now decide to wait a few days to make sure the AS would stay still.  Once it became clear they were settled, they set off in search.

 

Additionally, I really see no real proof in the assertion that there were only two gateways from Cairhien.  The Warders would only have known that they lay far to the south, and going due south would not have allowed the AS to detect the fact that they were moving until they were much closer.  From a long distance, they only thing that can really told through the bond is a vague sense of direciton.  If they Traveled four times, the AS might only have been able their last two as putting them in distinctly different places.

[Bob T Dwarf]

Whether anybody would agree to go to Shadar Logoth is open to debate.  Obviously something HUGE was going on there.  It might have been a battle.  If a battle, it had to involve Rand, and everybody who was searching for him was sworn to defend him.

 

That's all IF they thought it was a battle.  We know from the reaction in Salidar, that most AS believed it was something the Forsaken were up to.  Bashere knew that Rand was planning to Cleanse saidin and that would take using LOTS of the Power.  Such a massive use of Power would likely attract the Forsaken.  If he'd been in Cairhien by then, some of them would have risked checking out that massive use of Power.  Since they didn't do that, he must not have been in Cairhien yet by then.

 

Once Bashere arrives in Cairhien, nobody has any reason to impede him in finding Rand.  He's known to all of them as Rand's military Chief-of-Staff.  If he says he needs to find Rand then he needs to find Rand.  There's no way for the Cairhien AS to weasel their way into thinking that he might be a threat.  And, if he's willing to include Logain in those he's taking along, they have no choice but to agree.

 

Rand and Nynaeve were both the next best thing to dead by the time the Cleansing finished.  They both left SL on litters.  Cadsuane wouldn't lay a bunch of false trails before getting them to a place she felt was a safe R & R stop.  She knew they'd be safe at the Manor.

[mrabbott]

Remember what Bashere told Bael: 

"Elayne Trakand would not like that, Bael, and if you've forgotten what it's like being a young man, that means Rand al'Thor won't like it."

.

.

"We are outlanders, Bael.  That counts in Andor."

 

Bashere can't go into Caemlyn.  It would upset everything Rand is trying to allow Elayne to achieve on her own.

 

He didn't take all 9000+ of his troops.  He just took an honor guard of about 100.

 

 

 

That discussion between Bael and Bashere was about killing the besiegers who ignored them, which upset Bael's ego. 

 

Him riding into Caemlyn with a few people to discuss something with someone inside (doesn't even have to be Elayne - could be to pick up a soldier left in a sick bay) would not have been hard.  They grab someone who can Travel, beam over to his troop, then they are off.  But that is what could have happened instead of riding all the way to Cairhien in the winter.

[Bob T Dwarf]

You're missing the point.  No outlanders, especially armed outlanders, can be seen going into Caemlyn.  Too risky to Elayne's success.

 

Had the siege not been in progress, he could have tried to use a Caemlyn AS to get to Cairhien.  Since it was, he couldn't.

 

You're also ignoring my other point.  If Bashere had been in Cairhien when the Cleansing started he would have had to go check it out.

[Snowy Dawn]

I find it interesting that we have now gone a large number of posts on this matter, including speculations on how the AS in Cairhien would react to Logain's appearance with the bonded sisters, and no one has yet brought up the letter from Sashalle Anderly to the Highest (Galina as 'tis addressed, but received by Tsutama). Here is what Tsutama says to Pevara & Javindhra:

 

  Sashalle recounts Toveine's bloody visit to Cairhien with

  the other sisters and the flaming Asha'man, though she

  clearly does not know about the bonding. She found it all

  very strange, sisters mingling with Asha'man on `tense but

  often friendly terms'. Blood and bloody ashes! That is how

  she puts it, burn me!"

 

Tsutama goes on to say:

 

  Sashalle says that when they left, they took flaming Warders

  belonging to the sisters she believes are with the boy, so

  it seems bloody certain they were looking for him and likely

  have found him by now. She has no idea why. But she confirms

  what Toveine claimed concerning Logain. Apparently the

  bloody man is no longer gentled.

 

So, it seems that the AS in Cairhien do not know, or at least Sashalle does not know as of the departure of Logain, Loial, et al, about the bonding contrary to speculations made above. It is also worth noting that both Loial and Karldrin Manfor are already there when Logain and party appear. Recall also that Sashalle was at Dumai's Wells, that she is ``in charge'' of the AS in Cairhien, and that she was healed by an Asha'man, viz. Damer Flynn. Oh, also recall that all the AS in Cairhien are still under the thumb of the Wise Ones and that only Sashalle, and the other two who were healed from stilling are not being treated by the Wise Ones as ``apprentices''. What the attitude of Sorilea, Amys, et al might be towards the Logain and the Asha'man who arrived with him is not stated, but it would be their decision as to what would happen to Logain and party and whether Logain et al would be permitted to go off in search of Rand. All this needs to be taken into account in the discussion of this matter, surely.

 

 

[trakand_01]

trakand -

 

If you're not willing to do some thinking for yourself, you're really wasting your time with this series of books.  Jordan challenges us to THINK about what's going on at every turn.  He kept challenging us to think with nearly every appearance he made and every question he answered.  He especially challenged us to think with his infamous, "intuitively obvious to the most casual observer" line.

 

If you're satisfied with the conclusion you have drawn about Bashere's decision, then this thread isn't for you, and there is no necessity to keep reading it.

 

Yet another condescending and smug response which verges on personal insult. Fortunately being a successful system tester I'm thick skinned, but perhaps if you changed the approach you took with contradicting other people's theories, you would come up against less argument. This debate began not with the fact that you had another theory, but the way in which you approached the subject for that was what was annoying to start with.

 

We are all entitled to our own opinions and I have no issue with the fact that you do not agree it is Logain, I simply thought it unecessary to suggest that everyone else (Luckers, Majsju included) was not as observant as you, but yet refrain from actually telling us who you thought it was.

 

Anyway, as you pointed out for me, I have no need to continue reading this thread.

[Starla Bright]

I have to speak up in support of Trakand here. The whole point of these forums are to discuss and share ideas.

Bob if you're not going to be courteous enough to explain your idea, but instead just smugly point-out that you have one, then what on earth is the point? Are you just trying to annoy everyone?

[mrabbott]

You're missing the point.  No outlanders, especially armed outlanders, can be seen going into Caemlyn.  Too risky to Elayne's success.

 

Had the siege not been in progress, he could have tried to use a Caemlyn AS to get to Cairhien.  Since it was, he couldn't.

 

You're also ignoring my other point.  If Bashere had been in Cairhien when the Cleansing started he would have had to go check it out.

 

Not really...  They could come up with a reason to go in that would not have anything to do with Elayne.

 

And no, he would not HAVE to go to the Cleansing area.  IF he found out that he could use the warders to locate Rand quick enough (I, personally, think it was something he stumbled across after getting to Cairhien) I seriously doubt anyone would have taken him there.  I think someone would have thought that it was either the Forsaken (but the warders saying their AS was at the location would nullify that, probably), or that it would attract a lot of attention.  They have enough there who would be able to puzzle out that if it was Rand doing that, then it would be a magnet for the Forsaken and that Rand and his crew would be smart enough to have a guard there ready to annihilate anyone who showed up unannounced.

[icspots]

Additionally, I really see no real proof in the assertion that there were only two gateways from Cairhien.  The Warders would only have known that they lay far to the south, and going due south would not have allowed the AS to detect the fact that they were moving until they were much closer.  From a long distance, they only thing that can really told through the bond is a vague sense of direciton.  If they Traveled four times, the AS might only have been able their last two as putting them in distinctly different places.

 

The bond can be used to judge direction and distance, not only direction.  Up close Aes Sedai can tell how exactly far away their Warder is, as well as direction and all the other sensations of the bond.  At range they can't judge distance as exactly, but they can differentiate between really far, kind of far, and close.  For instance Myrelle makes the comment about having felt Lan come closer "in distance and blood" (LoC Chapter 52: Weaves of the Power) ever since the bond switched from Moiraine, and that was between Cairhien and Salidar.  So even if the Warders Traveled in a straight line towards Rand and Co. (which seems to make the most amount of sense) the Aes Sedai would still be able to tell they were closer.  Erian states, "....I felt them suddenly closer, and just now, closer again."  She doesn't say "I suddenly felt them to the west", she says closer.  For now I'm going to stick with the two gateway theory... not that it makes a difference if it was two or four as they still got there in less than a day.  I think if the person weaving the gateways had been either holding a bond or the subject of one they could have woven a gateway directly to Tear.  Since the Warders couldn't channel however they could just give a direction and a general distance and then make a shorter jump afterwards.

 

To your other points I agree mostly.  There were probably several days of trying to figure out how to find Rand once in Cairhien before they found the Warders, and/or convinced them to help.  Rand was only in Far Madding for four days after Logain and Co. got to Cairhien, and that much time could certainly be spent doing that. 

 

Once the cleansing began during that fourth day the reactions of everyone in Cairhien were probably the same as we saw elsewhere.... sheer terror.  If Logain's group had made contact with the Warders by that point then even knowing the Aes Sedai were in that direction wouldn't help them much.  First any of the channelers would think twice about going there without knowing what's going on.  Second the only channelers bonded to anyone at SL (those able to both sense a Warder and compare it to where they sense the "beacon" to confirm they're in the same place) are Elayne Alanna, and Myrelle.  Even if the Warders and another channeler compared notes the only thing they would have known for sure is that both the beacon and the Aes Sedai were that direction.  We can't assume that Logain's people thought anything differently than Egwene's Aes Sedai did.  Namely that it was the Forsaken and not to go anywhere near it.

 

As for Logain's people refusing to go to Shadar Logoth...... while I could kind of agree with that, somewhat, they don't know they're at SL just that they're in that direction.  A bonder/e can guess by direction and distance where their bonder/e is but they wouldn't know automatically where they were.  For that reason I'd say that it being at SL had less to do with not going there than the fear of getting vaporized by the person channeling that much of the power.

 

Whether anybody would agree to go to Shadar Logoth is open to debate.  Obviously something HUGE was going on there.  It might have been a battle.  If a battle, it had to involve Rand, and everybody who was searching for him was sworn to defend him.

 

Again the only people who knew that Rand was in the middle of the beacon were: Alanna, Elayne, Myrelle (arguable since she doesn't know Nynaeve is with with Rand), and Perrin (via the color flashes).  If they don't know he's there then they're not going to run into that much power on the off chance it is, especially since everyone who doesn't know assumes it's the Forsaken.  In fact just because they're sworn to him doesn't mean they have to go to him.  Perrin tells Masuri and Seonoid that it's Rand, and neither weaves a gateway on the spot to go protect him.

 

That's all IF they thought it was a battle.  We know from the reaction in Salidar, that most AS believed it was something the Forsaken were up to.  Bashere knew that Rand was planning to Cleanse saidin and that would take using LOTS of the Power.  Such a massive use of Power would likely attract the Forsaken.  If he'd been in Cairhien by then, some of them would have risked checking out that massive use of Power.  Since they didn't do that, he must not have been in Cairhien yet by then.

 

Bashere knew Rand was going to cleanse Saidin?  Rand had that little rant while at the farm after taking Taim there to start testing people, but Bashere wasn't there.  Even if he did know he has no idea how that would be done, or what would be involved.  Bashere knows about uses of the power for battles and tactics but that doesn't mean he knows everything about it.  Logain knows there was the beacon, and that right afterwards Saidin was clean.  We also know that Logain doesn't believe that Rand cleaned it.  That makes me think that Logain and Co (including Bashere) didn't know Rand was there to know he was in danger.

 

Once Bashere arrives in Cairhien, nobody has any reason to impede him in finding Rand.  He's known to all of them as Rand's military Chief-of-Staff.  If he says he needs to find Rand then he needs to find Rand.  There's no way for the Cairhien AS to weasel their way into thinking that he might be a threat.  And, if he's willing to include Logain in those he's taking along, they have no choice but to agree.

 

Bashere may have talked to Dobraine about looking for Rand since he knows Rand trusts him, but I doubt he walked into the palace shouting that he was looking for the Dragon Reborn.  Assuming he did talk to him it would have been several days before Dobraine was recovered enough to talk to him about anything.  Sashelle's letter states that the sisters believe Logain and Co. were looking for Rand because they left with the Warders.  So presumably they didn't know why they were there before that.  Sashelle's the one in charge of the sisters in Cairhien so if Logain's people were going to ask the Aes Sedai where Rand was then she'd probably know about it.

 

Rand and Nynaeve were both the next best thing to dead by the time the Cleansing finished.  They both left SL on litters.  Cadsuane wouldn't lay a bunch of false trails before getting them to a place she felt was a safe R & R stop.  She knew they'd be safe at the Manor.

 

I agree.  I think they didn't spend time laying false trails.  They may have done a quick jump away from the area and then gone to Tear, but I don't think any more time was spent than necessary.

[Lille]

Erian states, "....I felt them suddenly closer, and just now, closer again."

And then another Aes Sedai states she believes her warder will be there in an hour, which means an hour from the second gateway. How long time can it take to get say a hundred men through a gateway? I'd say 10 minutes max, and since opening a gateway to a place you "learn" that ground, so you can make a gateway from there to the next stop right away.

 

So id say its probably alot more then just 4 gateways from Cairhien to the manor. And Elayne states several times she dont know how far away Rand was when he was jumping around, just a general sense of direction and very strong emotions, like when he got his hand blown off. This makes me think you need to be pretty close to be able to tell an exact distance to your warder/bonder. And Myrelle stating that she has felt Lan comming closer doesnt really mean anything except that she can feel the distance lowering, but not really by how much.

 

Other than that little thing, it was a really good post icspots, and one thing i hadn't thought about before:

Logain knows there was the beacon, and that right afterwards Saidin was clean.  We also know that Logain doesn't believe that Rand cleaned it.  That makes me think that Logain and Co (including Bashere) didn't know Rand was there to know he was in danger.

[Snowy Dawn]

``Perrin (via the color flashes)''

 

And Mat, likewise.

[Bob T Dwarf]

So, it seems that the AS in Cairhien do not know, or at least Sashalle does not know as of the departure of Logain, Loial, et al, about the bonding contrary to speculations made above. It is also worth noting that both Loial and Karldrin Manfor are already there when Logain and party appear. Recall also that Sashalle was at Dumai's Wells, that she is ``in charge'' of the AS in Cairhien, and that she was healed by an Asha'man, viz. Damer Flynn. Oh, also recall that all the AS in Cairhien are still under the thumb of the Wise Ones and that only Sashalle, and the other two who were healed from stilling are not being treated by the Wise Ones as ``apprentices''. What the attitude of Sorilea, Amys, et al might be towards the Logain and the Asha'man who arrived with him is not stated, but it would be their decision as to what would happen to Logain and party and whether Logain et al would be permitted to go off in search of Rand. All this needs to be taken into account in the discussion of this matter, surely.   

 

Sorry, guys - been busy.  I'll try to answer as many points as possible.

 

From Snowy Dawn's quotes, it's pretty clear that Sashelle doesn't realize that Logain & Co have bonded the AS travelling with them.  However, Sashelle is a Red, and therefore least likely to recognize a form of Warder Bond.  Not so any of the others who have Warders of their own.

 

While Sashelle may believe that she is "in charge" of the AS in Cairhien, as Samitsu's POV makes clear, Samitsu was the one Cadsuane chose to look after things.

 

Dobraine really wouldn't have any say about the Warders.  Warders are AS business, and none of the AS would have paid any attention to anything he had to say about that.  It would have taken Samitsu being convinced that releasing those Warders was a wise thing to do.  It would have taken the Warders being convinced that the AS instructing them to cooperate was authorized to do so in the absence of their bonding AS.  It most likely would have taken someone other than Logain to convince Samitsu.  It's doubtful that Samitsu would even agree to meet with Logain.  It's more than doubtful that Logain would agree to meet with Sashelle or any other Red.  Which is where Bashere comes in.  He's the only one who could act as a broker between Logain and the AS.

 

As pointed out, Logain doesn't seem to believe that Rand is responsible for the Cleansing.  Like everyone else, it seems he thinks that the huge amounts of Power being used were some Forsaken doing.  Unlike Bashere, it's virtually certain he knew nothing of Rand's intention to cleanse saidin before the fact.

 

I'm not sure there is ever a scene where Rand tells Bashere specifically that he is going to cleanse saidin.  His intention was widely enough known that all of the Forsaken's spies had reported it.  It was the topic of conversation at their kaffe klatsch in WH.  None of them had taken it very seriously.  It only became a real concern ( panic for some ) when Cyndane revealed that Rand had the access keys and so would be certain to attempt it.  If their spies knew, it's virtually certain Bashere knew.

 

The number of gateways they had to make in order to find Rand isn't really important.  They make one, go through, check direction, get an idea of how much farther, and make another.  Rinse and repeat until they get close enough that it makes sense to just ride the rest of the way.  Less than a day, total.  "....I felt them suddenly closer, and just now, closer again.", makes it clear they were gating to get as close as possible.

 

If I missed anybody's points, I apologize.