The Virus in the Matrix: Tales of a Psyhacker

I am standing in front of a free standing mirror, looking at myself. I think about Nomad's game. I look kind of boring in jeans, with no shirt, barefoot. I transform into a warlock assassin in all red with a hood, staff, chain, daggers, and throwing knives. My crow, Sir Darkness, sits on my shoulder. I look at the mirror, I say, "Take me to Denn!" and it shows me a lovely deciduous forest with birch trees in the late summer afternoon. I step through, and it feels kind of like sticky soap.

I am in that forest, and I hear a babbling brook nearby. Bird sing, and I smell some sweet wildflowers. Honeysuckle? Sir Darkness makes a low growling sound. Suddenly, a scream, and orc garble. I rush toward the sound. I see a large orc standing over a woman holding a baby, scrambling away after stumbling. The orc is threatening her with a warhammer. I shout at him to distract him, and release three throwing knives at the same time as he turns to look at me. One hits him in the forehead, one in the heart, and one in the groin. Dead. The woman bawls, thank you. I summon Thunder, my black and red Clydesdale war horse, and place her on the horse, and we ride to the town of Denn. Along the way she tells me her name is Essence, and her husband was killed by an orc tax collector. “How are the orcs ruling over you?”
“After the war, as part of the treaty that was signed was that the Orcs would get Denn and the surrounding land. Since their rule, they have been starving us to death with taxes, and they murder us if we say anything they don’t like. They taxed us until we had no gold, then no silver, and now they are taxing our food. They take over half of everything we grow, and people are beginning to starve!” As we crest a large hill to begin out descent into Denn, Essence gasps. The town below is swarming with orcs. What? They’re fighting each other. Apparently, there are two factions: one has a banner with an orc head with a bloody human arm hanging out of his mouth. The other faction has a banner with an orc holding a tiny human upside down, and gold falling out of the human’s pockets. I later learned one faction is called The Golden Horde, and the other one: Sons of Devour. Humans are fleeing for their lives in all directions, and others are imprisoned in stocks on a stage, and some in bonds.
Suddenly, a horn blasts, and the battle is over. The Devour Faction has the Mayor, who is the Chief of the Golden Horde, captive. They force him on to the slave market stage, and the Chief of the Devour Faction shouts, “The Great King and Lord Orc, descended from the Sun, spits upon your very soul. Thou art weak, so now you will be culled. Bind him to the ritual table!” A table is brought on stage the color of old blood. They tie him down.
“And now, brothers, we feast upon the flesh of the weak! The Urth will be purged of this dross!” The Devour orcs leap upon the chief and eat him alive, beginning with his guts. The scene is gruesome. Just then a group of five small orcs leap on to the stage and attack the Devour Chief. One attacks his torso, another his legs, another his arms, another his head, then they slit his throat, and disappear into the crowd in the ensuing madness. The Golden Horde turns the tide of battle with their war machines and superior weapons and armor. They drive the Sons of Devour out of the Denn, and capture the rest. They shackle the other orcs and proclaim they must work as slaves next to humans for the punishment of revolting. I hear a snuffling… A scout orc pops up from a bush, and I throw a knife into his forehead.
“We need to move, they’re on to us.”
“There’s a safe place, a secret place for us to hide, the people of Denn. Hopefully everyone that ran away made it. I will show you the way. I cast a spell of Mist over us to veil our journey. She tells me she grew up with stories of legendary heroes that would arrive in Denn from another world, and keep the people safe. “Well, those are just children’s tales. But, maybe they’re true. You’re here. What kind of powers do you have?”
“My powers are limited, sister, yet I do have some control over elements, and am trained in the ways of the Shadow Warriors of Nod.” We stop, and she says the trees here are a magical illusion, ride through. We do, and we are in a refugee camp, deep in the forest. People are arming up, eating, cooking, tending to wounds, treating the sick, gathering water and wood, and building fires.
“Welcome, Essence!” a guard says.
“Hello, Johann, this good sir, is…”
“Azoth. Well met, Johann.”
“He rescued me from a tax collector in the forest, then we saw the orcs’ battle, and so everyone fled that could, and the rest are in chains. I’m so scared.”
“Yes, Essence, the situation is dire, but first, let us get you and your baby some shelter, water, food, and a nice fire going. We are protected by a magical shield here. You need to rest.”
Some of the older women escorted her away. The guard looked at me scrutinizingly. “Big war horse, raven on the shoulder, you’re a Traveller. Haven’t seen one of you in these parts in a long time.”
“Yes. I’m a friend of Nomad.”
“The Bartender? Great storyteller that one. Doesn’t really seem to care much of what happens in Denn, and for that, I don’t really trust him. I don’t like how he serves to humans and orcs alike, disgusting, really.”
“Hmm.”
“ I suppose you’d like to see our Weapon Shop?”