The Power Of Cithrí - A Chaol Westfall Fanfiction

Part 15

Suspects, list guest, an empty list of witnesses. The sheets were laid out on the table infront of me, pages and pages of scribbles. I leant over them, scanning my mind map. I had gone through the guest list of everyone at the ball, corssing off every woman; y/n's name was on the front page a huge black cross through it. She had gone so pale when I told her it was the woman of the ball, she had fallen into a chair, clasping onto Shadow.

It was as if I had told her she was dead.

She had trembled, refusing any comfort I could offer, just making me promise that there was a murderer. It had been weird. Sent shivers down my spine now.
In a sense her reaction was understandable, I couldn't think of anyone with a better motive than her. This was the girl she had seen me kissing. She should be angry enough to have killed her, but luckily that was impossible.

Ross was sat opposite me, scratching his shoulder as he stressed over it. "How come not a single person saw her leaving the ball?"
Thankfully there was a knock on the door, relieving me of having to answer that question. I couldn't even remember when I left the ball, well past drunk by then.
My father swooped into the room, not waiting for our welcome in. He stood squarely behind Ross, my fellow guard flicking between us.
"Ross, leave us." I asked of him.
The young guard got up, nodded and took his leave, not questioning his orders.

"Are you going to accuse your own father of murder?" He said, running his hands along the back of the chair, rubbing his fingers together as he examined the non-existent dirt.
I gritted my jaw, gulping back my urge to snap at him. "How much did you pay her to end my relationship with y/n?"
Lord Westfall, pretened to look shocked, evil in his eyes. "I didn't pay her anything Chaol..." He watched me taking notes. "I'm just sorry she's dead, would have made a pretty bride."
I put my pen down, making it obvious I was not writing that down. He hadn't seen y/n in that red and black dress, he would never have said that if he had. She had been drop dead gorgeous, it still blew my mind now. "Lets say you did pay her," I said. "And at the end of the night she threatened to tell me if you didn't pay her more. So you thought you deserved your money's worth."
My father growled grasping the chair back, the wood creaking in his fists.
"Only afterwards you realised what you had done, so you sort the only way to silence her and broke her neck."
I was surely showing my joy at irritating him so badly, I wanted revenge. He had sought to destory my relationship, little would he know that it was working, my bed colder than the white peaks of the mountains.
"How are you even allowed to do this job? Afterall you did make out with her, then drunk enough to knock out a horse."
I snarled my upper lip curling upwards, clenching my fist under the table.
"Maybe it was you who killed her," He started to walk around my room, moving over to the rug of Anielle that hung above my fireplace. "Everyone saw how mad and drunk you got after y/n stormed out." He gestured to my heavily bandaged fingers. "So you found her, slept with her, thought it would look bad on your status, so killed her, dragged her body into a dark corridor and called it rape."
My mouth tasted bitter and metallic, a small ridge on the inside of my right cheek. "I have alibis."
My father folded his arms. "Who?"
I wish I had never spoken now. "The drinks man, and a servant."
He scoffed. "Both of which can be paid to say anything, hardly a reliable alibi for the captain of the royal guard."
My stomach threatened to throw itself out my mouth, I hated hearing my title in his mouth, it just reminded me of the huge argument we had before he disowned me. "I also spent some time with Dorian."
At least my father couldn't look down at that alibi. He turned back to the rug, running his hands along the ledge above the fire place. I had put nothing there, I never had an eye for decorations, but yourname had put a small wooden toy hammer, a wooden dancing girl, a small boy, and a giant. It was all her family, carved into soft pine wood. In the middle was a dancing couple, there faces didn't exist just smoothed heads of wood, but they were staring into each other with the most passionate love in the world. Or at least that is what I let myself believe.

"What did the king say about you being drunk on the job?"
I turned away from my paper mind map, knowing all too well I was about to scrunch it up, not just because of the barstard my father was. But the ache in my chest was back, the thought of y/n making me a wreck all over again.
What was I supposed to tell my father? That he king had shouted at me, ordered me to find the murderer or else I'll loose my position and be banished from Rifthold. "He hasn't brought it up."
"Yet!" My father added, raising an eyebrow. "What about the murderer you share your bed with?" He was refering to y/n of course.
"We are fine!" I snapped. "No thanks to you."
Lord Westfall shrugged. "I did not pay Natalia son."
How on earth did he know her name?! I was so fed up with him by now, I wanted to be alone, to spend my time running my hands over y/n's dresses, so I could at least pretend I was holding her. "I have a murder to solve, the door is over there."
My father peirced his lips, consider what more insults he could throw at me. He looked at the rug one last time, and sighed. That was the home he tossed me out of, banned me from returning, and yet it was the main spectacle in my miniature chambers. "Your mother misses you dearly, when you realise your mistakes, we will be waiting for you to come home." Lord Westfall, didn't say it as a loving father, he said it as a Lord who's only desire was to build his power. Even if that meant using his son's connections to get to it.
I flinched at the name of my mother, I hadn't seen her in over ten years now, I wonder if she still looked the same. It was unlikely she did, my father looked aged, how would she look with wrinkles? "Just get out." I was tired and stressed, as my father sweeped back out the door, chin held high.
I leant on the sofa armchair, pressing my forehead into the leather. Why the fuck did everything stink of wolf?!

The chamber doors opened, the ones y/n and I had fallen through a mess of love that night she had taken me to dinner - one of the nicest gestures I've ever had.
Ross popped his head in. "Captain?"
"Out!" I shouted and the door shut again.