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Oh that I don't really remember. 

[More spoilers]

I think it might have been that the court mage was supposed to be around Bryant's age (who was supposed to be around??? 5ish years older than Mary? But this is just from memory.) and whether or not Mienese court does child marriage/what is the age of adulthood/ideas of consent is definitely something I did not put too much thought into back then haha. 

If I were to rewrite it nowadays I'd say: Ancient Mienese court has universal age of adulthood at 15, this is the age at which Mary dies and Bryant is 21. The Dragonkin have age of adulthood older (since they live longer) at age 20 which is the age Elvine is at during the course of the story.  This is why when Elvine first sees Mary she thinks she's a "little girl" because to her, she would be a minor in her own culture. 

I have no idea why I made it twenty years between their fathers death and Mary's and Bryant's LOL. There might have been an aspect I'm completely forgetting about, but I feel like 3-5 years would have been plenty.