"I don't think so, not if they know there's something there to use. But... My sister is talented with fire spells, and only fire. But with this," he taps the blue one, "she could make miles of ocean freeze solid, or move water around to threaten cities or irrigate farms or scour islands. And she would know, just by touching it, that it could let her do all those things."

He shrugs. "I don't know what someone who couldn't do magic on their own would know or be able to do. A scholar I know, who had studied them, seemed to think that anyone who got one would be able to conquer the world with it."