About Charmion...

[Mir]

This isn't very relevant to the greater plot, but it's been on my mind for a while now. She's placed underneath Kevan on Arisse and Corisande's dossiers, implying that she's younger than him. Kevan is thirty-three. Her eldest child is seventeen. Her husband is thirty-six, meaning he was nineteen at the birth of their eldest child (which is normal for the setting, but potentially raises other questions)...

How old is Charmion?

[ReEmmeline]

She must be 32, which would make her 15 (just barely a legal adult) when her first child was born. Which raises the question of why she married so early.

[Mir]

That's what I'm thinking. The alternatives are that she's Kevan's twin or that she was...um, not a legal adult (which, aside from the creepiness, would be scandalous but is not hinted at anywhere). But thirty-two seems the most likely.

My working theory about why she married so young was that she and Severin had a shotgun wedding, but the only thing supporting that is Charmion's possible age. It's also an incredibly convenient match for those circumstances (the Duchess of Lillah's daughter and Duke of Mead's sister with either the heir or Duke of Kigal), but stranger things have happened, I suppose.

[ReEmmeline]

Unless Severin wasn't really the father. But I don't like where this is going, so let's just assume they were madly in love.

[Mir]

I would be lying if the circumstances in which that would be possible hadn't crossed my mind at some point. But um, yeah! Much better to think they were just young and in love (and perhaps a little overenthusiastic).