[UNEDITED]

The blonde lady nearly choked on the next seed, when Ridgie's opponent, having bent unnaturally, tried to prod his thigh with a sword. The Anlimorian barely managed to dodge, miraculously keeping his balance. Not giving him time to recover, the noseless one unleashed a whirlwind of attacks at Ridgie. Then for a while, they were moving in a circle. Gritting his teeth, the Anlimorian moved back, evaded or parried the blows. He earned a long scratch on his forearm but stayed on his feet. Having feinted, he sprang forward, and the sharp tip of his saber traced a scarlet stripe across the chest of his enemy. The noseless one backed awkwardly. Having decided to dispose of an opponent in one fell swoop, he spent too much energy, and now he had to defend himself. The fighters in no way inferior to each other and this forced them to use all their skills (both fencing and acting). The audience froze in anticipation, guessing who gets tired first, falls for the trick of the enemy and makes a fatal mistake. It seemed to Talia that even the eye-ears in the air began to tremble nervously, betraying the excitement of their mysterious proprietresses.

Unlike them, the an Kamian knew the answer to this question. She was not worried about Ridgie and so listening to the melodious chime of blades, Talia pore over herself. As expected, there was no soul in the body of False Talia. It was controlled by a complex spell, which was programming its behavior and determining responses to some stimuli. The body was done perfectly. This was the work of a real master of his craft, of an expensive, highly skilled specialist, who managed to accurately replicate the tone and the delicate texture of Original Talia's skin, the color and luminosity of her eyes, the peculiarities of her bad posture, her manner of holding her hands or moving her ears.

But Talia couldn't even imagine, who (and, most importantly, for what purpose) would decide to splurge on the services of this wonder-craftsman. If she didn't know that her sweetheart Enaor is as poor as a Lindorg mouse, she should have him first on the list of suspects: he always liked to spring such insulting, confusing surprises on friends or enemies, he doesn't care. Alas, his penury was His Ballsiness' ironclad alibi.

Of course, because of her occupation, Talia must have made some enemies. However, how come her wealthy and certainly influential foe had failed to find out what she was going to do in the coming days and to choose a more appropriate moment for all this celebrity look-alike show? He certainly could not foresee that Moneo might suddenly need Talia's claws to cut a particularly tough hide. But why, once that happened that way, did he not postpone the execution of his plans? "Either his spies are empty-headed cuckoos, or he himself is a dense idiot. Or ... or he is firmly convinced that the person in whose eyes he wants to discredit the virtuous me, will believe him anyway. And will not do anything to find out what exactly happened," she thought.

The tracery of sounds changed, forcing Talia to pay attention to the fighters. Having decided that the performance has gone on for too long and is running the risk of boring the audience, Ridgie stopped restraining himself. It seemed that he had found his second wind ... and in addition a second pair of lungs. He no longer pretended that he is fighting for his life with his last ounce of strength. The Anlimorian was showing off for his lady guests; he was dancing. His opponent was bewildered. The poor fellow was unable to keep track of all the blows of the long saber, which was describing the bizarre roundish patterns in the air. Fortunately, among the Anlimorian's clients, there were not many bloodthirsty persons. Ridgie made an imperceptible movement, and the noseless one cried out, grabbed his shoulder, and dropped his sword.

The crowd roared, cheered, and clapped their hands. The lover of sunflower seeds recalled that she needed to breathe.

"The act of seduction is completed successfully. I think it's time to raise the rent for Ridgie," advised Enaor.

"Double it," hummed Talia.

Unaware of the heinous intentions of his friends, Ridgie bowed with the audience.

__________

Illustration by Polina Pronichkina.