Satenag rolls her eyes.

"Does 'I wish, without any negative effects on my mind, body, or sense of self, as quickly, harmlessly, durably, and costlessly as possible, to attain the talent, skill, knowledge, ability, and power to, as quickly, harmlessly, durably, and costlessly as possible, and without any negative effects on their mind, body, or sense of self, through an act of my awake and sound-minded will, grant either of the following to any willing individuals or masses I choose, such that the entirety of this wish is implemented only in accordance with my untampered will: attainment of the full power and true form of a Genie OR a subsidiary copy of this talent, skill, knowledge, ability, and power which can be revoked by and only by a wish-power-diaspora-ancestral holder of a copy of this grant.' still work?" she asks.

"I don't expect it to, as it could be harm to someone's body or sense of self to replace it with that of a Genie."

"Hmm."

Satenag taps her chin. "That makes sense. So that might not work. But if it's not going to make anything worse, there's no harm in trying."

She draws herself up.

"Eeferi, I wish, without any negative effects on my mind, body, or sense of self, as quickly, harmlessly, durably, and costlessly as possible, to attain the talent, skill, knowledge, ability, and power to, as quickly, harmlessly, durably, and costlessly as possible, and without any negative effects on their mind, body, or sense of self, through an act of my awake and sound-minded will, grant either of the following to any willing individuals or masses I choose, such that the entirety of this wish is implemented only in accordance with my untampered will: attainment of the full power and true form of a Genie OR a subsidiary copy of this talent, skill, knowledge, ability, and power which can be revoked by and only by a wish-power-diaspora-ancestral holder of a copy of this grant."

"Oh.  That didn't work .."

"Wishes can't directly put knowledge of operation of purely Wish powered magic in the minds of those who are neither Genies nor Masters."

Satenag blinks.

"Huh! So it failed for a different reason than we were expecting. Can you tell whether it would also have failed because people can't become genies without possible harm?" she asks.

"I don't know on that one, still.  It still seems possible to me, though."

She nods, chewing on a knuckle in thought.

"You said 'purely Wish-powered magic'," Anþasta points out. "Can you wish for non-Wish-powered magic? Like, wishing for a magical rock that gives out the ability, instead of wishing for it to be directly gift-able."

"... Maybe?  Is there something native to this world that can power it?"

Anþasta shrugs. "Not that we know of. Would trying to wish for it tell you whether there was or not? When you learn why the wish failed?"

"I think that would depend on the specific shape of the failure.  It would be prudent to shape such a Wish to minimize all other failure modes, so that only that one facet supports the possibilities."

There's a general nodding, as people think about how to do that.

"Well, even if it failed in a different way, we'd still learn something else," Anþasta points out. "But that does make sense. What about something like: 'I wish, such that the entirety of this wish is implemented only in accordance with my untampered will, without any negative effects on my mind, body, or sense of self, as quickly, harmlessly, durably, and costlessly as possible, to attain a non-wish-powered magic rock that, when touched by an individual of their own awake and sound-minded will, knowing what the rock does, as quickly, harmlessly, durably, and costlessly as possible, grants the full power and true form of a Genie without any negative effects on their mind, body, or sense of self.'?"

"Several concerns cross my mind.  Firstly, that seems as though it may require specifying in the Wish the option to draw upon forms of magic from beyond this world alone.  Secondly, such a stone could also be highly prized - wars have been fought for control over less powerful artefacts.  Thirdly, would a phrasing such that you could conjure such stones into being of a specified size, weight, shape, and durability with the desired properties make more sense?  It would reduce the rarity of such objects."

She nods at the practical concerns. Most of those make perfect sense.

"I think I'm confused. If wishes can draw on powers from other worlds, why would the original wish have failed because the magic was wish-powered?" Anþasta questions. "Is it that you have to wish for things powered by magic from other worlds explicitly?"

"You're correct to my understanding.  Wishes have a sharp tendency to avoid any interaction with other worlds unless explicitly instructed to. Wishing to change some aspect of 'everywhere' will usually have no impact on even very close worlds.  So, to have a Wish enact magic not from this world nor from a Wish, it would need to access magic from another world.  This risks changing those worlds in ways their inhabitants don't want, much as a wide reaching Wish risks changing this world in ways its inhabitants don't want."

Anþasta lets out an undignified squawk. "That's not what 'everywhere' means, though. The—"

Penþa cuts her off. "Thank you, Anþasta. I think we're maybe getting off track. Eeferi, you said that it was the knowledge of operation that the wishes could not provide. But there was nothing preventing purely wish-powered magic from being propagated. Do you think it would be feasible to wish for the same thing, but with the knowledge provided externally? Such as by a book, or by being taught by someone who already has it?"

"I believe that would work, yes."

"So we'd want to make sure that it was teachable in a reasonable amount of time, and that it doesn't, like, just bury us in more books than the Archive holds," Satenag muses. "So maybe something like 'I wish, without any negative effects on my mind, body, or sense of self, as quickly, harmlessly, durably, and costlessly as possible, to attain the talent, skill, knowledge, ability, and power to, as quickly, harmlessly, durably, and costlessly as possible, and without any negative effects on their mind, body, or sense of self, through an act of my awake and sound-minded will, grant either of the following to any willing individuals or masses I choose, such that the entirety of this wish is implemented only in accordance with my untampered will: attainment of the full power and true form of a Genie OR a subsidiary copy of this ability and power, alongside a reasonably-sized book legibly written in a language that they understand containing all the knowledge necessary to safely use the granted ability and power, which can be revoked by and only by a wish-power-diaspora-ancestral holder of a copy of this grant.'?"

"Isn't it possible that then the book would be the thing that can be revoked?" someone points out.

"How would you revoke a book?" someone else asks, getting a shrug in response.

Satenag rolls her eyes again.

"So 'I wish, without any negative effects on my mind, body, or sense of self, as quickly, harmlessly, durably, and costlessly as possible, to attain the talent, skill, knowledge, ability, and power to, as quickly, harmlessly, durably, and costlessly as possible, and without any negative effects on their mind, body, or sense of self, through an act of my awake and sound-minded will, grant either of the following to any willing individuals or masses I choose, such that the entirety of this wish is implemented only in accordance with my untampered will: attainment of the full power and true form of a Genie OR a subsidiary copy of this ability and power, which can be revoked by and only by a wish-power-diaspora-ancestral holder of a copy of this grant, alongside a reasonably-sized book legibly written in a language that they understand containing all the knowledge necessary to safely use the granted ability and power.'?"

"While that may work, it might be subject to the 'blue dress and flying boat' problem, where the book is not a structurally necessary addition to the granted copy."

Satenag runs her hands through her hair.

"Yikes. This is really hard."