“Not inside!” Merlin shouted

  I fully expected him to try it anyway. There was a glint in his eyes that told me he wanted to.

  I put my hand on his arm. "You heard him. Outside.”

  Jonnie pouted his lip, but he turned and walked out of the building. I collected my things and followed him outside.

  Jonnie had already walked into the middle of the street. He looked over at me to make sure I was watching. Once he knew that he had my attention, he plunged the dagger into the ground.

  I had been expecting it would do ice damage somehow, though I wasn’t sure how it could since there were no hit points.

  Instead of the blade doing something, it was the ground. A sheet of ice spread out in a circle, covering the road five feet out in every direction.

  “It works!” Jonnie pulled the dagger out. The ice stayed on the ground. He slipped as he walked over to me.

  I put my hands on my hips. "You doubted me?”

  “Nah.” He smiled. "I just didn’t think it would work that well.”

  “It worked too well?” I asked

  He tapped on the rune on the blade. It had gone to gray just like the one in my spell book.

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  “This is a more powerful version of the same spell.” He put his hand on the ground. "Watch.”

  He touched one of the same runes on his arm. The ice shot out of his palm and covered the ground in a circle three feet out from his hand.

  “See?” He got up. "You’ve got mad skills.”

  I nodded. "So I get those spells?”

  He pulled his spell book out. "Any five you want.” He flipped through it. "This is my strongest ice spell.”

  I read the description. It would release a blast of hail in the direction that the hand was pointing. I assumed that if it was put on a weapon, it would release the hail in the direction the blade was pointing.

  I copied the spell. It had some very complicated runes inside the circle, but basically I was just shading in. It didn’t take me long to copy.

  Almost all of his spells were ice based. I could understand why he called himself the Ice Mage. I copied an Ice wall spell and an Icicle spell. For my last two I picked a beginner fire spell and a beginner water spell.

  As I finished copying the water spell, I realized I had seen the rune before. Mei had it carved into the bottles she kept in her backpack. It let her carry around empty bottles. When she wanted something to drink, she could trigger the rune and she would always have plenty of water.

  “What now?” Jonnie asked

  “We wait for the rest of my group to get back.” I gathered up my stuff

  “So you wanna grab that drink now?” Jonnie grinned

  I looked up at the sky. It was late. I was tired. "Not going to happen.” I started up the road. "I’ll come get you when we’re ready!” I called over my shoulder

  “Don’t do me like that!” Jonnie whined. "I gots plenty more stuff I can teach you.”

  “Goodnight!” I yelled

  I made it to the inn without him following me. I knew that he’d be pestering me in the morning, but I didn’t plan on leaving my room. He wouldn’t be able to get in, so I wouldn’t have to deal with him until I was ready. That was a tomorrow problem. Right now, I just wanted to sleep.

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