Was it an assassination attempt?

Question

In book three of the wheel of time The Dragon Reborn chapter 23 Sealed the aftermath of Egwenes trip through the accepted testing ter angreal is detailed.

We find out that while she was inside the ter angreal something went wrong and she quite possibly almost died. It is implied several times throughout the chapter that this was because of a resonance between the testing ter angreal and the dream world ring ter angreal just given to Egwene by Verin. We also are told that once before when Aes Sedai used two vaguely similar ter angreal in the same room that it destroyed both of them and harmed the Aes Sedai who were present.

We find out much later in the story that

Verin is Black Ajah

Is there any other evidence to suggest that this (the giving of the ring immediately before the examination) was a deliberate attempt to kill Egwene by the aforementioned character?

Note: I think there is little reason to doubt that Verin knew that the ter angreal could cause each other to react in such a way. It is mentioned by either Alanna or Sheriam about the only other case of this happening so it seems to be common knowledge. Not to mention that Verin was a brown who pride themselves on knowing things.

Also Verin knew that Egwene was going to have her accepted test very soon, perhaps immediately since Elayne went through while Verin and Egwene were talking.

Answer 1

No, there's no real evidence of an assassination, and if anything, there's evidence that it probably wasn't:

• Verin tried very hard to help the heroines despite her status; note what she was willing to do in the end to help Egwene out. At best, she might have been trying to fail to assassinate Egwene by doing a bad job at it.
• Soon after this, we learn that the Black Ajah has plans for Egwene (give her to the Seanchan), which obviously require her to be alive.
• At this point, Egwene is not much of a threat to the dark side, but she is leverage against Rand. It's unlikely they would want to kill her at such an early stage.