I'm trying to hammer out a timeline for Raucus Antillus in particular and others incidentally, and I'm running into a frustration.

In the Princeps' Fury Prologue, we have "Raucus had cut his teeth in battle at fourteen years of age." And it's been "forty years since" then.

BUT, in Chapter 32, Aria says that she's been close to Raucus "since I was fourteen years old" at the Academy. Then (same chapter) Araris says that "Thirty years ago" he was in his "first term at the Academy when [Raucus] and Septimus were in their second."

For that to work, Raucus would have to be 24 in his second term at the Academy (when Aria sent her sons at 16--Ch. 32 again--and that sounded typical, especially since Amara started at 13 at the latest--FoC, Ch.35--and Tavi started at 15/16). He would also have to be close friends with a 14/15 year old girl (which I find mildly creepy, but that could just be me being judgmental).

Have I gotten any of my years wrong? Unfortunately, I got the book out of the library and can't double-check to make sure my notes are right. Do you think the "forty years" and "thirty years" statements could be rounding, so that it's actually slightly less than 40 and slightly more than 30?