[@LadyRunic] Hm, that's not the way I'd set it up for sprites.  They rely on very short ranged blinking to get into and out of trouble, and it's a fairly simple skill for them, or at least that was the intention.  Not all of them can -- probably 75%, though I might be convinced to lower it to 50.  I was going for something similar to an AD&D monster I saw years ago -- I can't remember the exact name, but I'm trying to find it.  Basically they use the skill to not be wherever the attack lands, though granted it's not a guarantee.  And to get into trouble -- because they're sprites.  The idea of using something with such limited range was to allow for a much lower cost.

As for travel by magic, I was under the impression that fey were well-versed in magic, and often very familiar with it.  Fey in general that have reasonably strong magic, if teleportation is a common skill, ought to be able to do it without a huge strain.  Either it's a common skill or it isn't, and I thought you just said it basically was.  I might be misunderstanding, though, as I am in a bit of a fog.  Taking salamanders, for example, if they're not particularly strong fey (and they don't seem to be), jumping one hearth to another miles away sounds like it would exhaust them, but it does not.  So the same should be true of undines/naiads, and by extension the other elemental equivalent races should have a comparable ability, for balance.  Although salamanders don't seem to be fully sentient, so maybe it's just a thing for lesser species?  @.@

If you really need to be somewhere in a hurry, it'd be worth teleporting or wind-riding or whatever.  It wouldn't be done all the time, but it's a skill worth having.  Sini's fairly strong or she wouldn't have been a candidate for Guard Captain.

As for short-range teleportation, sure it takes more energy than walking, but it's also much faster.  Running is faster and takes more energy too, so that's a fair exchange.  And practice makes it easier and increases endurance.  If she's going to use it in battle, Sini would have practiced extensively.

If there are designated portals and landing spots, I think much of the cost of the magic can be waived.  That'd be the point of having those gates set up, after all.