Unpicking weaves

[baalsmistress]

On a reread of TEotW yesterday, I noticed that unpicking weaves is not a skill restricted to the Aiel wise bones, but known to Moiraine as well.

 

When she's in the blight nearing the eye. Mat asks why they are waiting. Her reply is

 

For me to remove the last vestige of what I did here last night. The residues would have dissipated on their own in a day, but I will not take any risk I can avoid now. We are too close, and the Shadow is too strong here. Lan?

 

From the reaction to Aviendha later, it does look like the Aes Sedai do consider it too dangerous to teach though.

[Mr Ares]

That's not unweaving. Unweaving would be taking a weave apart rather than releasing it normally. What Moiraine does is release it normally and then erase the residues.

[Kahsm]

Yeah, I see it as another weave of some sort that hides or erases residues. like post inverting or something like that.

[Ferdawoon]

Not really. After someone make a weave, it is possible to still see the remains of it. The stronger the weave, the longer the residues persist.

It is possible to undo the weave.

 

I have always seen is as some form of unraveling, to pick the weave apart thread by thread.

As the wise ones themselves say, anyone can learn it, just as any woman can learn to undo something that have been sown (me and grammars...). The reason Aes Sedai seem to dread it is because of what happen if it go bad, and we saw what happened when Elayne tried to undo her weave causing that huge implosion.

[Luckers]

Yes, we understand what unweaving is, but what moiraine does in this scene seems different: unweaving involves unpicking the web before you release it, thus preventing the formation of residue, whilst what moiraine did was to release the web and somehow scrub away the residue.

[Mandro]

Yes, we understand what unweaving is, but what moiraine does in this scene seems different: unweaving involves unpicking the web before you release it, thus preventing the formation of residue, whilst what moiraine did was to release the web and somehow scrub away the residue.

 

That is a nit that we chose to pick. I DO think that's a thing. We know she had at least 2 other skill's, maybe not TALENTS others didn't have, but Moiraine had her own secrets.