The arrests happened at the fourth hour past midnight.
Sir Willem, captain of the king's personal household guard ...a grizzled veteran of forty years whose loyalty to the throne was not political but personal, forged through decades of service to Aldric's father and reinforced by an oath that he considered as binding as any law of man or god ...moved with the quiet efficiency of someone who understood that in operations of this nature, speed and silence were the difference between success and catastrophe.
He had twenty men under his direct command. Not soldiers in the traditional sense ...the household guard were more akin to an elite protection detail, selected for their combat capability, their personal loyalty, and their ability to operate independently of the larger military command structure. They answered to the king alone, their chain of command bypassing the Lord Marshal, the council, and every other institutional authority in the kingdom.
