Magic works very differently where I come from than what I've seen here. Different races of people--humans, elves, and halfbloods, who are a mix of the two--all have different types of magic. Here, there are humans with all sorts of different skills and none of them are at all like what humans can do in my home world.

As for magic coming with a price, I've only seen it happen once in my home world, and that was under a very specific set of circumstances.