Sphinx's Quill

There are many rewards offered from answering a sphinx's riddle correctly, from being granted passage into one the many ancient sandstone temples guarded by the sphinxes to being taught great knowledge and magical spells thought to be lost to time, but there is one reward seldom thought of, a feather from the sphinx's wings, their feathers never seem to fall off naturally, and if they do the sphinxes seem to be just as good hiding them as they are secrets from those unable to answer their riddles.
It is said the first person to ask for this reward was a traveling bard, even the sphinx was befuddled as to why someone would want such a thing, the sphinx gave the bard their prettiest feather, it had the sapphire blue of the ocean and the vivid orange of a desert sunset, with a bow of gratitude the bard went on their way. As the bard suspected the feather possessed such potent magic that it could be used in the creation of a great number of magical items, as the bard lay in their tent that night they got out their journal write of the events that transpired that but noticed their ink pen was missing, no matter where they looked they could not find it, they did not want to forget the details of such a big day so they caved in and used the sphinx's feather as a quill, they didn't think much of it and hoped they could clean the ink off the feather later. When the bard arrived in their hometown the next day they began to read their journal aloud to their family they sat stunned as the words the bard said came to life as beautiful smoky illusions of sapphire blue and vivid orange depicting the very scene the bard described, the same colour as the sphinx's feathers. After that day anytime the bard wrote, they did do with the quill and every time the words were read same dazzling illusions sprung from the pages.
The stories of the sphinx's quill have spread far and wide, it is the bard most famous tale by far despite their name being unknown.
When something is written with a sphinx's quill at first it will appear just as any other writing, but holding the paper up to sunlight will reveal hints of the feathers colour within the ink of the words, when the words are read, either aloud or to oneself they will glow, fully revealing the hidden colours and illusions will manifest nearby made of the same coloured mentioned beforehand depicting the stories held within, the image is inspired a little by the author's image of the story and a little by the reader's image but it also appears to have it's own idea of the story looks. When the reading stops the images will begin to lose their shape before dissipating into the air, but it is said the illusions never truly leave so long as the story lives in its readers and listeners hearts.

Credit goes to Ning Shi for the cover image. https://unsplash.com/photos/RowhlsyDoCE

Item type

Magical

Rarity

Sphinx's feathers have become very sought after by writers and collectors but they are extremely rare, as few can answer the sphinx's riddles, let alone find a sphinx and fewer still would ask them for one of their feathers a reward.
There are an estimated dozen sphinx's quills in the world, most are presumed to be kept in either private collections or hidden troves. Their owners are likely to be unwilling to part with such a rare and beautiful item at all.
Some of the most famous stories are granted a special version of the tale written with a sphinx's quill, these versions are very limited but perhaps not as limited the quills themselves, these books are still very expensive and most often find themselves in a noble house's library.
In spite of this some stories written with a sphinx's quill belong to people far less rich than nobility, for example the great library of azurehold contains many of these books and poems, and there some local storytellers around the world who own them and have been unwilling to give them up to nobles wishing to purchase them in spite of how many tens of thousands of gold they are offered.

Weight

Slightly heavier than an average quill

Dimensions

the feathers can range in size from about ten inches to as long as an average arm depending on which part of the wing the feather was taken from