Oh yes. Granted here it's more extracurricular than anything. [If he picked up on that unease, Stephen wasn't saying a word. Hell, he'd been stuck fixing more than enough magical problems to know that anyone worried about magic was entirely justified.

Just so long as they didn't go Salem With Trials everything was just peachy.]

In a way. It's not always so neat and easy as 'pay this much through ingredients, time, or sacrifice per spell' but the general idea is there. That there's a cost to be paid by the caster, and it tends to manifest itself differently for different types of magic.

[Well, if Ragnar thought the drinks were solved, Stephen was fine with it, focusing on his own instead for the moment.]

As for common? Well I'm fairly certain that finding a world without any magic at all would be exceedingly rare. The variable tends to be if the residents are capable of harnessing that magic themselves in some way, or if the magic is even able to be used in that manner. Which for my world, is... not entirely common? Skepticism stops a person from being able to cast or use magic objects, and as logic and reason are the watchwords of the era it's not as likely anymore.

Which is probably for the best, I spend more than enough time cleaning up after enough messes brought on by inexperience as it is.