seen some good meta about 15-16 being the age of adulthood in aramán (at least when it comes to war) and how this means azune and julien aren't child soldiers in the way we think of them today. but we also get this in the ep. 2 cold open:

so how old would azune have been when his father sent him to the mercenaries? eleven? twelve? it's unclear who these "mercenaries" are — we don’t know too much about thjazi, teor or kattigan’s pre-rebellion backstory, so they could have been mercenaries, but the way it’s said gives me the instinct that it’s another group.

to me…. if it actually is another group… there’s no way these mercenaries treated azune well. even if they weren’t outright awful, i’m almost positive they didn’t look after him. i think it tracks that thjazi could have “rescued” azune from another group after seeing the young boy’s capabilities — jumpstarting azune’s idolization of thjazi.

we know that thjazi is someone who valued people’s usefulness to him. (casimir. bolaire.) you see a kid who’s already been through the ringer with mercenaries? a kid who has magic? a kid who owes you? of course he’d use that

cut to azune nayar, late twenties, saying “i will never not be useful.” i would bet anything that mercenaries made him useful and thjazi took advantage of that.

(all of this is assuming that the mercenaries are a different group from the falconers, but i think that tracks. others might think different?)

long story short. that’s a child soldier #mychildsoldier