"Is resurrection a kind of creating people?"

Everyone exchanges looks.

"Surely not. The whole point is that the people already existed," one person begins, at the same time another says "Maybe — it depends on what you mean by a person, I think."

There's a moment of confused shuffling.

"Well ... even if it is a kind of creating a person, I guess it's not creating people per se that is the problem?" Lhemur posits. "If they don't mind existing, I mean."

Penþa shakes their head. "I don't think we have laws about creating people who don't want to exist, exactly, although with wishing involved, we probably should. The problem is with creating people who have no choice to do anything else — that's slave labor, and explicitly forbidden in the founding documents."

"If a Genie is bound to a Master, granting Wishes remains an involuntary action.  Even if they agreed beforehand to a trade in which they will do so, in the moment of granting there is no choice not to."

Penþa pinches the bridge of their nose.

"Ah. Thank you for that clarification," Penþa says. "I think that may still be permissible with prior agreement, but I would need to check. I don't think we've ever actually had to clarify that exact case ... If someone too young to swim agreed to go out on a boat, for example, they would be trapped until the boat could get back to shore ..."

Lhemur shuffles his feet, and asks the question they probably should have asked sooner.

"What is it like, to grant a wish? And is there anything we can do to make it more comfortable or less objectionable, somehow?" he asks.

"To grant a Wish, all distractions melt away."

"No contrivance might avoid its fulfillment."

"One channels everything into truth."

"There is .. something beyond the self."

"Then reality is changed, by a nigh unstoppable force."

"Many aspects of a Genie's mind are malleable with Wishes.  I worry what it would mean, to interfere with the process - I do not suggest the attempt."

Lhemur doesn't find that description particularly understandable, but that's fine.

"I'm not sure I really understand — but if you don't want your mind messed with, we're not going to mess with it," he assures.

There's a general nodding of agreement.

"I was thinking more things like ... pausing for a moment before making a wish, to check in and be sure you're ready for it," he continues.

"Taking more time to ensure a Wish matches your intent is a reasonable precaution.  As has been noted, I am the closest local approximation of an expert on the topic."

Lhemur scratches his head and tries to think of a reply, because he's pretty sure that Eeferi misunderstood his point.

Đani waves her hand for attention, having spotted Satenag on her way up from the lake.

"So — we agree that we want to respect people's preferences, if possible," she begins. "So I propose we first wish for that version, if such is possible without creating a person. And then if that isn't possible, we can fall back to either a version that doesn't respect people's preferences, or that creates a person, whichever we think is less of a harm."

"If we wish for it not to create a person to do the judging, might it just require Eeferi to do all the judging?" Lhemur points out.

"I don't recall doing any judging of my own in the past such that my opinions were memorably a component of a Wish, though there have been Wishes which were interpreted as I would have preferred them to be."

"... huh. Alright then. In that case, I see no problem with Đani's proposal."

Satenag arrives, thoroughly damp. She wrings some water out of her hair.

"What has Đani proposed?" she asks.

"That we first try a wish that would respect people's preferences, and only if that fails look at using the wording that you pinned down earlier," Penþa summarizes. "Although we don't have a wording for the former, yet."

"How about 'I wish as quickly, harmlessly, durably, and costlessly as possible, for it to be the case that everyone who could theoretically be made resurrectable with a wish or by other means and who would want to be able to be resurrected if they understood how this wish would affect them, or who becomes a member of this category at any future point in time, including anyone already dead who could be made resurrectable, including those yet unborn, including people in other worlds, be made as easily and costlessly resurrectable as possible, with the viable method or methods of their resurrection and a short summary of what groups were or were not affected made known to me without harm to my mind, body, or sense of self, such that the entirety of this wish is implemented without creating a person to judge any of the requirements of the wish, and such that the entirety of this wish is implemented only in accordance with my untampered will.'?" Đani suggests.