KaNack was rudely awakened the following morning when he heard a loud lightning crack right next to him. He shot up from bed and panted, clasping a hand to his chest in an attempt to keep it from erupting past his ribs.

"Come on, sleeping is overrated," Festus grumbled as he stared down at the Argonian. The apprentice stared at Krex in shock and then turned to the side. All of the other assassins were still sound asleep in bed. Either they were masters of feigning slumber, or this was something that happened regularly enough that it didn't even faze them anymore.

"What time is it?"

"Around four, now get dressed! You need to make me breakfast before we get started!"

Leaving it at that, the cranky elder stormed out of the Dark Brotherhood's living quarters. KaNack blinked a few time and then feel back onto his bed with a load groan.

After a quick shower, he got dressed and made his way down to the dining section where Festus was settled at the table, waiting patiently. "Can you cook, Knapsack?"

"It's…." the Argonian released an exasperated sigh. "Never mind. I know how not to burn eggs."

"Well, get to it then!"

The mage went to work as he grabbed a few thrush eggs from a nearby basket, and began to boil them whole in a pot of water. He wasn't sure what to make of his mentor, the old cretin was as bad-tempered as they came, but in a way it was almost endearing.

Once the eggs had been properly boiled, the Argonian shelled and sliced them. Placing his tutor's breakfast on a plate, he presented the meal to Festus. Much to KaNack's relief, the old mage ate his breakfast without complaint.

"Festus," the lizard started, "may I ask a question?"

"If you must," he grumbled between bites.

"You said that negative emotions make your casting more powerful and dangerous, right?"

"Weren't you listening? Of course I did."

"So does that mean you are one of the most dangerous wizards alive?" the reptile asked with a smirk.

Festus stopped eating and shot his apprentice a dangerous look. He started to chuckle, which then erupted into laughter.

"Now you are starting to understand!" he answered in amusement. "Yes, no one stands a chance if you are negative all the time! I think I just might be able to work with you after all!"

"Really?" KaNack asked, perking up at Festus' supporting words.

"Of course not!" Krex barked, before returning to his meal. The Argonian murmured to himself quietly as he rested his head on his hand. He should have known better than to think he would have earned a compliment so quickly from the cantankerous caster.

After breakfast, Festus had KaNack grab one of the larger dummies from the training area. It was constructed of wood and steel instead of wood and straw like the smaller ones. The older mage made the Argonian carry the heavy target out of the sanctuary and into the woods.

"Come on! Keep up, boy!" Festus shouted as he easily trailed ahead of his student. "We should have started hours ago! Consider it an act of kindness I allowed you to sleep as long as you did!"

"I am starting to understand how you might have killed your last student!" the reptile growled at the Dark Brotherhood assassin as he strained under the weight of the dummy. Mages' strength comes from within; brute strength is never one of their strong suits.

"All I hear back there is whining!" the man hissed as he climbed around broken branches and large rocks that were scattered about the Pine Forest. After what seemed like an hour of walking, the two eventually ended up in a clearing.

Festus looked around and nodded his head in approval. "Yes, this seems as good a place as any. Place that dummy over there!" He pointed over to an area that was mostly dirt. One is less likely to start a blaze if he strikes earth and not plant life.

KaNack released a loud grunt of relief as he placed the heavy target on the designated area.

"Why did we have to bring the big one?" the apprentice asked, cracking his back that was sore from the heavy load. "The smaller ones would have been much lighter."

"We're going to be out here for a while! I'm not going to have you make a hundred trips back and forth because you wanted to be lazy, and carry a weaker target!" He gestured towards the large dummy. "This one should easily last us all day!"

"Well, I can't argue with your logic," the younger mage stated with a shrug.

Festus instructed the Argonian to stand fifty feet in front of the large dummy. The elder then circled around his pupil, seeming to look for something to criticize. "First thing you need to know is that it's not easy being a mage," Festus started. "We don't have the luxury of armor or brute strength like those ridiculous barbarians fighting in the war. With that being the case, we must take any advantage we can."

He held out his arms so that KaNack could see the old wizard's outfit. He was wearing a shrouded cloak like his, but Krex's looked more faded and worn, he had a hood, but kept it pulled black, and he pulled out an amulet that had been hidden underneath the garb.

"Blessings and charms will only aid you in the pursuit of mastering your magicka," the assassin continued. "Those pretty new threads on you? Those will make casting destruction spells slightly easier. That doesn't mean that you don't still have to work hard though!"

Krex began to circle around his apprentice. "That worthless school of yours doesn't understand the true meaning of mastering destruction spells. They thought my methods had a bad influence on the students, and were too dangerous! HAH!" The mage shot his arm forward and flames erupted from his hand, licking at KaNack's face. The Argonian jumped back from his tutor.

"How are the students supposed to know how effective their castings are if they don't practice on one another?!" Festus folded his arms and released a frustrated huff. "Ah, but I digress; you're here to learn how to control your magic so you can become a more efficient killer."

The old mage began to pace in front of his student. "Now, I want to see just how miserable a bastard you really are. Just as wrath influences fire, you need a different negativity to manipulate your sparks." Festus shrugged. "Oh, anger will help your lightning attacks as well, don't get me wrong, but if you really want to strike your foes dead, you need to be frustrated."

"Isn't that the same as wrath?" KaNack asked. His question was rewarded with a sharp smack to the back of the head once again.

"A novice would think like that!" Festus barked. "Wrath comes around when you hate someone so much that you want nothing more than to see them dead! Frustration is brought forth by irritation and strife!"

Krex got into a casting position, and a ball of lightning began to form between his hands. "The struggle within makes your inner sparks bounce against one another causing friction. Eventually it will come to a head and a deadly electrical charge will be produced." He narrowed his eyes. "Are you following me so far?"

"Yes, Festus," the Argonian muttered. A sudden realization then hit the Argonian, and he slapped his forehead hard with an open palm. "You're going to help me with the frustration process, aren't you?"

A wicked smile curled up on the man's wrinkled face.

"You are catching on." He gestured towards the steel dummy before them. "I want you to strike that target with sparks until you burn a hole through the steel."

"Through steel?! That will take forever!" the Argonian explained.

"It will, if you keep insisting on whining instead of doing!" the assassin snapped. "Now, get to it! Chop! Chop!"

The apprentice had no choice, but to get into his casting position. Sparks shot forth from his fingers and struck against the steel dummy before him. Loud crackling and pops echoed through the forest as the reptile kept casting his electricity at the target.

This time, Krex did not interfere with the spell, but merely sat himself on a nearby rock to observe. The Argonian started to feel his magicka start to grow weak as he tried to keep his attack going. As the sparks lessoned, Festus spoke up.

"Don't you dare slow down! Keep at it! You stop and I will shoot you with lightning myself! This time I WON'T be aiming for your tail!"

"How am I supposed to keep casting?" KaNack growled as he fought to keep his spell up. "I only have so much magicka within!"

"Your magicka threshold will never become stronger if you never push it past its limits!" the elder explained from his perch on the rock. "Just keep at it! I don't care if you can only spit out little flickers of electricity, so long as you DO NOT stop!"

The apprentice did as he was told and kept his spell up. When he felt weak, he would lessen the charge enough so that his magicka could very slowly start to revitalize. The Argonian didn't know how long he had kept at the casting; he had become so focused on just reading his own abilities and managing his magicka that everything else in the world around him became obsolete.

The reptile pushed and pushed himself hard, hoping and praying that eventually the steel armor would break, but it never seemed to grow weaker. Eventually KaNack could no longer cast his magic , and collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.

"I can't…" he panted. "I can't do it! I tried Festus! Believe me I did try my damndest!" He hung his head low in shame. "I just couldn't break the armor."

The Argonian got up from the ground and walked over to the forested edge of the clearing and sat down on large boulder. The Argonian looked over at Festus sadly; he couldn't believe that he had failed so miserably in front of his tutor.

"Well of COURSE you couldn't!" Krex announced as he sat up from his rock and approached the dummy. He knocked it a few times, and the dummy's armor began to glow a light hint of blue. "I enchanted this damn thing so that it resisted shock!"

KaNack's jaw dropped when the elder revealed why he had failed the test. The reptile's eyes narrowed and he pointed at Festus furiously.

"Are you telling me that no matter what I could have done, I wouldn't have been able to break that armor?!"

The old man got a wicked gleam in his eyes as he laughed at his apprentice's frustration. "Yeah, pretty much."

"What about frustration making the sparks more powerful?! What about increasing my magicka threshold?!"

"Oh, that's all very true!" the assassin explained. "But I figured it would be better to work on your magicka threshold rather than your destruction ability. You lasted a fairly long time as well. It's important to be able to read and adjust your casting flow to make the most of your energy and keep it active as long as possible."

"Then why did you have me work on my frustration if it wouldn't have made a difference on the target?" KaNack growled.

"Well," started Krex with a smile, "that was just me screwing with you."

"You miserable old cretin!" the apprentice snarled. He was sore and exhausted and had just been played a fool by the man he was supposed to trust and learn from. His student's anger just made Festus laugh loudly.

"Oh, get over it! Life's too short to be moaning because every little thing doesn't go your way!"

KaNack was about to retort when he felt something sharp poke into the back of his neck.

"Well, looks like we have ourselves a couple of mages," a voice growled. "I'm sure one of you is carrying something valuable."

Festus turned as soon as he heard the voice, and turned back towards his student. A bandit had come upon the two and was now pointing a drawn bow to the back of the Argonian's head.

"Oh, what in Oblivion do you want?" Festus grumbled, not at all impressed with the thug's presence.

"Gold! Soul gems! Scrolls! Whatever you have that is worth money! Empty your pockets now, old man!"

Festus grumbled, still not at all fazed and returned to his spot on the rock. The elder pulled a small flagon from his satchel and began to drink from it.

"Aren't you listening to me?!" the bandit screamed furiously. KaNack grunted as the sharp point of the arrow poked harder into his neck. "If you don't give me what you have now, I'm going to kill your scaly friend!"

"Go ahead and kill the little bastard," Festus muttered as he placed the flask back into his satchel. "He won't be the first student of mine that got killed." He then grinned at the bandit. "At least this time I can tell Astrid that it didn't happen at my hands."

"FESTUS!" KaNack screamed. The Argonian couldn't believe what he was hearing from his mentor. Astrid had gone on about how they were all a family, and the first chance Krex got to be rid of him, the mage welcomed the opportunity.

"There you go, whining again!" the assassin snapped as he glared at KaNack. "Death comes to us all, doesn't it?"

"I'm not kidding!" the bandit shouted at Festus, confused and slightly frustrated at the elder's lack of cooperation. " I will kill him!"

"Then do it!" Krex barked at him. "Youth these days," the older mage rolled his eyes. "All talk and no action! I'm starting to think you don't want to kill the little lizard."

"Festus, for pity's sake!" the Argonian pleaded with him. He didn't want to go out like this. He had lost his school, his friends, his love, and now just when he thought he had found acceptance, he faced betrayal again.

"Then again," the older mage started suddenly as he stood up. "It just occurred to me that if you kill him, I'll have to drag this damn thing back myself," he explained as he gestured towards the steel dummy. The assassin shook his head. "That won't do, that won't do at all."

"You've got to be kidding me," KaNack grumbled under his breath. "That's why you're changing your mind?!"

"I am old man! Trying to move something like this could throw my back out! Show some compassion!" he hissed at his captive student.

"COMPASSION?!"

"I'm running out of patience, old timer!" the bandit snarled.

Krex approached the bandit and made a motion with his hands for the man to calm down. "All right, all right. No need to get all worked up." The assassin clasped his hands together as he smiled at the archer. "So tell, Old Festus. What do we have to do to put this messy business behind us?"

"Well," the bandit started, "first you are going to…."

Festus' hands suddenly then opened and he leaned into a casting position. A raging ball of fire flew from his hands and crashed right into the face of KaNack's attacker. There was a burst of flames, and the arrow that had been pointed at the Argonian, shot askew. The deadly bolt punctured harmless into the earth by the reptile's feet.

KaNack trembled and slowly turned his head to see the still burning mess that had been assailant. The Argonian turned back to stare at his mentor. The fire ball had been about as deadly as the one the Argonian had fired the previous night, but was more a projectile cast.

"What was that?" he uttered in both horror and wonder.

"That," Festus started as he made his way over to the younger mage, "was incinerate. One of the deadliest destructive fire castings one can learn on Tamriel." He folded his arms as he stared down at his student. "You have a great deal of powerful anger within you. If you work hard, very hard, and do everything I tell you to, you might be able to cast it yourself within the year."

KaNack stared up at Krex in wonder. "How did you know that the arrow was going to miss me?"

"Honestly, I didn't. One of the best things you can do when you are in a fix, though, is allow your enemy to think that he has the advantage. As soon as their guard lowers, that gives you the perfect opportunity to go for the jugular. Fortunately for you, he dropped his guard and that threw off his aim." The elder smirked at him. "Aren't you a lucky one?"

The assassin stretched and reached forward to ruffle KaNack's feathered head.

"Come on now, Kracket. Grab that hunk of junk, and let's head home."

That was it. The Argonian grabbed a hold of the dummy and dragged it back to the Dark Brotherhood sanctuary with his mentor leading the way. Nothing had changed.