Within moments, or so it seemed to me,

[Coffee Break]

I read this phrase, "Within moments, or so it seemed to me", but am finding it difficult to understand it. Could you please let me know what it means? Here is the excerpt:

The judges entered. Within moments, or so it seemed to me, the presiding judge had asked for the witness to be brought in. The side door opened and a slender young woman entered. She was obliged to walk past the former president as she made her approach to the witness stand, and did so stiffly and without looking in his direction. He leaned forward, folding his hands on the desk and watching her carefully. She looked no older than twenty. The court usher poured her a glass of water, adjusted the microphone. The witness barely seemed to respond, her face was empty of expression. It was obvious the entire thing was an ordeal for her, she sat rigid in her chair and stared straight ahead, as if afraid to move.

- Katie Kitamura, Intimacies, Chapter 13

This is a novel published in 2021 in the United States of America. The protagonist is an interpreter working at the International Criminal Court at The Hague. Now she is interpreting in a session where the witness gives her testimony against the accused (the former African president who stands accused of war crimes).

In this part, I am having difficulties in parsing this phrase.
Would it be okay to understand that "so" refers to "moments"...?

I am curious how this is grammatically structured, because "moments" seems to be followed by a full sentence as I see it, rather than a noun phrase or just a noun.

 

[Tarheel]

The writer is under the impression that only a brief amount of time passed. (He/she could have been mistaken.)

 

[jutfrank]

It seemed as if the judge had asked for the witness to be brought in within a very short time. It is possible that it was in fact longer than it seemed.

 

[Coffee Break]

@Tarheel and @jutfrank,

Thank you very much for the explanations.
So the writer felt as if a short period of time has passed, so "so it seemed to me" was inserted in the sentence!

But then, I wonder, what would "so" refer to? Would it refer to "within moments", or "moments" only? I am curious because I am still trying to grammatically understand this sentence...

 

[jutfrank]

so = that it happened within moments

 

[Piscean]

It's not dissimilar to this so:

A: Did it happen quickly?
B: I think so.

 

[Coffee Break]

@jutfrank and @Piscean,

Thank you very much for the explanations!
So this "so" refers to the whole implied sentence of "it happened within moments"!

Then the narrator is saying: "within moments, or it seems to me that it happened within moments (=so), but anyways the presiding judge..."

I sincerely appreciate your help.