Obviously, the Templar made it happen on purpose, knowing that a pair of linked Keidran assassins who were actually only semi-competant at their jobs were exactly what the Templar needed to make the outlying human villiages turn to them for protection. "Better sign this contract giving over your souls to the Templar. I hear there are magical Keidran assassins about. They can even communicate from a distance with their witchcraft and read each others' minds." This is also why Natani thinks she's a guy -- they couldn't take the risk that their magical assassin experimental Keidran would breed and produce more magical assassin experimental Keidran; so they reprogrammed Natani's brain. Zen wasn't knocked unconscious, so they made him a eunich. :( Also, now that they know how effective the psychic link is, there's an entire cadre of Templar warrior-mage-assassin-theives, all mind-linked to one another (the child and their cat were an early experiment in applying the mind link to humans and other beasts). This will culiminate in the final battle, where Trace must single-handedly defeat one hundred ninjas, but which fight as though they're one big ninja, therefore escaping the inverse ninja rule (the competance and effectiveness of any group of ninja is inversely proportional to its size, after that size exceeds ten).
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