From my reread, I have noticed multiple discrepancies in Sword Catcher when it comes to age and years gone by, relating to Artal Gremont and Kel's age specifically. Kel is 23 years old (Conor is said to be 23 on page 40, and Kel is known to be the same age as stated in the prologue where they are both 10), and was taken by the Palace at 10. Therefore, he has spent 13 years on the Hill. However, he says "I have been watching the nobles of the Hill for fifteen years now." on page 418, which does not make sense because that means he would have been 8 instead of 10 years old when taken into the Palace.
Then, we have Artal Gremont. On page 153, Kel reminisces that when he and Conor had been 14, Gremont was sent away due to a scandal. However, on page 145, Kel is thinking back to when he was 15 (page 142) and gave Antonetta the grass ring. Months later, she has her debut (she is also 15) and he is searching the room for her and "It had been Conor who tapped him on the shoulder, directing his attention to a young woman speaking to Artal Gremont" (page 145). (The young woman is Antonetta, but he doesn't realize it at first). This is more of an offhand comment where Gremont doesn't have much relevance. However, this does not make sense chronologically if Gremont was sent away when Conor and Kel were 14, but he is still attending Antonetta's debut ball when they are 15? This could have easily been an editing mistake. Let's go by the idea that Gremont was sent away when they were 14. Now they are 23, so it has been around 9 years since his departure. This is reinforced by this quote, where Kel is overhearing Bensimon saying that he doesn't want Gremont to come back to take over his father's charter: "Whatever Artal Gremont had done, it was bad enough that Bensimon disliked the idea of him returning, even a decade later" (page 262). This tracks with Gremont being gone around a decade, so this timeline works out with them being 14 when he was sent away. However, on page 285, Kel is asking Merren what Gremont did and he says this: "He's a figure of curiosity on the Hill. He was sent off into what amounted to exile nearly fifteen years ago-". Fifteen years ago??? What? If Kel and Conor were 14 when he was exiled, and it had been 15 years, then they would be 29 years old in this book!! What the hell is going on with this timeline? Maybe I am getting way too deep into this but I had to write out all these discrepancies because the timeline was making me go crazy. I think most of these are just editing mistakes but itβs kind of interesting how many mistakes have to do with the number βfifteen.β
