I present a magic system premised on quid pro quo, "something for something." Often this means making pacts with otherworldly entities, but other users of magic may make exchanges with existence directly. To harness magical power people destroy their valuables, lose memories, or even trade their health.

In order to make exchanges of this type animals have to lose things of which they understand the value. There is a species of squirrel that hoards acorns not for food but to magically create children. There is a species of bird which learns the joy of flight before trading its wings for long life. And some say there is a species of ape whose intelligence is at the cost of the burden of understanding.
spam fails_task lang_mismatch pii not_appropriate hate_speech sexual_content quality toxicity humor helpfulness creativity violence