Magic quill

A fine black quill, matte on one face and faintly iridescent on the other, of the kind of feather a crow or a raven drops. What makes it worth having is what happens to the ink: for a while after it is laid down it stays loose on the page, beading and rolling off, and a careful hand can roll it back into the well it came from. Anything written with it is better formed than the same hand would otherwise manage, which matters most when the writing is meant to pass for somebody else’s.

Mikhail found it in Yullen Gemsmith’s house on a restless night, his own quill gone blunt and his supplies elsewhere. Working out what it did took him most of what was left of that night (switching inks, switching parchment, switching quills, until only the one variable remained), and by then there was no night left for the research he had sat down to do.

How long the ink stays liftable was never measured.