Message Quill

A message quill, also known as a dupli-quill, is crafted to be part of a pair: the quill itself and the book it is linked to. Anything written by the quill on any surface will appear on the next blank line in the book to which it is linked, no matter how far away that book may be in the world.
As a magic item, the quill is always crafted from the highest quality feathers of magical birds, usually a phoenix or something similar. On one notable instance, a quill was crafted from a celestial's shed pinion feather gifted by it to a mortal friend. Whatever the source, when it is held to the light a sheen of gold washes across the feather, and faint gold traceries run up the shaft from the runes used in its crafting. Each quill bears a line of minute sigils which are also borne by its pair-book.
Many dupli-quills use metal nibs, but even the ones hand-carved from the structure of the quill never need sharpening. It can use any ink it is dipped into, and no matter how poor the quality of the ink it will write superbly, as if only the finest inks were used with it. Its linked book somehow never runs out of pages, no matter how many are written, and is extraordinarily resistant to damage, as is the quill.
Although extremely costly and difficult to create in comparison to a normal quill, they are reasonably well known by those wealthy enough to afford them as their uses are many and varied.
When a travelling trader working for another merchant uses a message quill, they commonly both possess quills and exchange the linked books. This allows them to rapidly send messages and instructions back and forth, writing their message in the book and awaiting the reply to appear on the next line. One notable merchant trading consortium has offices in many different cities, with the merchant in each office possessing a book & quill linked to a book and quill at the consortium's head office. This allows the consortium to rapidly identify in-demand trade goods, source them in another location where they are much cheaper, and supply them swiftly at a high profit margin. The consortium's success has started to draw attention, however, so use of the quills is kept secret.
Explorers and naturalists reporting back to adventuring societies sometimes carry dupli-quills, ensuring that their reports are received by the society on whose behalf they are travelling, no matter what may happen to them or what delays they may experience. Wizards searching out new spells may use a dupli-quill to inscribe them in both their own spellbook and the duplicate kept safely back at their home, ensuring that new spells are not lost even if catastrophe befalls their travelling grimoire.

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