The white cat leaps lightly up onto the couch next to her, batting a forepaw at the long braid, half in play. "Not quite the same, no. Free Magic is the chaotic, violent, uncontrolled magic from before the Beginning. The Seven wove most of it into structured, passive, ordered Magic, the Charter, which contains the structures on which Life is built. It can be used by human Mages through spells and the like, made of Charter Marks."

"Free Magic is very different." He shrugs. "Some humans try to use Free Magic, but they are ultimately consumed by the very power they seek to control, becoming still more Free Magic, themselves. Free Magic is corrosive to the Charter, and unravels the chains of the Charter spells it encounters. It is based more on willpower, than spells."

For shame, Sophie, letting the not'cat wax pedantic.