"What happened next?" Valdora questioned, his voice quivering in anxiety, nervousness and anticipation of what was about to come.
Lagsan took a deep breath and remained silent for a couple of moments. It was as if he himself was trying to process the answer to the question.
"I too, like everyone else in this tent, was shocked and horrified and filled with disbelief," Lagsan said. "At that time, I had not been aware of Commander Strickland's plan, and thus I could not fathom why the magisters would give such an order. Why would they turn against us? Was the Golden Company not fighting on their behalf?"
"Horrified by what I had heard, I rushed back to our camp and informed Commander Harry Strickland of everything," Lagsan said. "He too was shocked, just as I had been, but unlike me, he had an understanding of what was truly happening. He knew what had caused the sudden shift in the nature of the magisters and he for a moment was filled with regret for thinking too far ahead of him."
"But he soon took control of himself and thought of what could we possibly do?" Lagsan said.
"It became clear to us that we had no escape," Lagsan continued grimly. "If we continued with the campaign, it would have meant certain death and the complete carnage of the Golden Company once we entered Meereen."
"Retreat was no option either. To move such a large force would instantly draw the attention of the other two sellsword companies and the Dothraki. And that too would have meant death. They would have minced us in between."
"There was no option that we could see and it seemed as if we were truly hopeless. And that was when Commander Strickland came up with his plan." Lagsan paused, his voice turning heavy. "He decided to sacrifice himself and a handful of our own men to carve an escape route for the rest of us."
He spoke the last line in an almost emotional tone.
"He decided that he would use around one thousand men to create enough distraction for the rest of the force to escape as far as possible," Lagsan said. "Commander Strickland knew the Dothraki would not chase us too far, and even if they tried, we had a fair chance of losing them in the vast distances, the valleys, and the forests."
"Thus he selected all the top officers of the Company, and himself, to act as a distraction. And, for reasons I still do not know, before I even realised what was happening, he nominated me to act as the commander of the escaping force," Lagsan added, dropping another shockwave. But everyone was too engrossed in the unfolding tale to react.
"With no time to waste, we made all preparations in complete silence. As per the plan, Commander Strickland with two hundred men would try to kill Khal Gorro. Another two hundred would attempt to kill the commanders of the two sellsword companies. The remaining six hundred would act as support, causing chaos and distractions between the camps. And at the very first moment Commander Strickland made his move, we were to depart."
"But…" Lagsan's voice turned heavy with shock. "At the very last moment, when he was about to execute his plan, chaos erupted in the Dothraki camp."
"Their food supplies had been poisoned. Initially, we had thought that perhaps someone from Lord Aeos' camp had been able to infiltrate the Dothraki camp. Later, it turned out that Lord Aeos had secretly managed to buy the loyalty of one of the minor Dothraki leaders."
"A group of five thousand Dothraki served under that leader, and they had poisoned the food in the Dothraki camp and likely the food in the camps of the other two sellsword companies as well. Given that the Golden Company's camp had been heavily guarded, they were unable to poison our supplies."
"It was a slow poison, fatal, but delayed. Enough time for many men to eat. The poison alone killed around two thousand Dothraki and nearly a thousand sellswords."
Lagsan exhaled deeply.
"Commander Strickland was ecstatic. He realised immediately that this was our best chance. And so he set his own plan in motion at once. As per the instructions, we escaped, while Commander Strickland sacrificed himself."
There was a solemn silence in the tent as Lagsan finished his tale. The story sounded unbelievable, almost fantastical, but the officers knew that nothing about the events at Meereen could have unfolded in a simple manner. Hearing a retelling was one thing; witnessing it was another. Still, they had finally gained a basic outline of what had happened. And yet, they could sense the explanation was far from over.
"What happened at the battlefield then?" one of the officers asked. "All those rumours we've been hearing. What happened after this? Tell us about those tales."
Lagsan fell silent, his expression shifting. It was as though he was struggling to process a memory that even he could not believe.
"With ten thousand men following behind me, I carved out a path for them," Lagsan began slowly. "I had mapped the area during the previous days, so guiding them into a valley was easy enough. But after that, I could not calm my mind."
"So I decided to return," he admitted. "To take a look at what was happening or what had already happened at the camp."
He paused, drawing in a shaky breath.
"And I returned. And what I witnessed shocked me to the core."
"I reached a high vantage point overlooking the battlefield. The entire camp was in complete chaos. It was impossible to tell who was fighting whom. The five thousand Dothraki who had betrayed their Khalasar were attacking their own kin. Perhaps a few sellswords had joined them, maybe Lord Aeos had managed to buy some of them as well. I could not tell. But even then, despite the insanity before my eyes, the situation was still within the realm of the believable."
His voice dropped, almost a whisper.
"And then Lord Aeos made his entry."
A ripple of unease ran through the tent. Lagsan's voice carried shock and a trace of awe.
[I assume that you all are keeping in mind that whatever Lagsan is saying and expressing is all a lie and part of the plans.]
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