The Magicians (book canon) (Quentin Coldwater)
Turns out, everything that people think they know about magic is wrong. Nobody uses wands. Nobody wears robes. Sure, there are crystal balls and magical amulets and all sorts of paraphernalia, but that's just part of it. Eliot's right. Magic is rooted in pain, and it grows out of the magician's sheer will to shape the world in a new way, a way that's not quite so terrible. So Quentin studies like he never has before, learning the tuts that turn his hands into weapons, into scalpels, into chisels, and starts planning a new world for himself and his friends.