"Is there a way to test this?"

"Yeah—you could summon a maker and do some investigative conjuring."

"But you have not been able to arrange this in the past?"

"Daeva cannot summon, only mortals can, and my world has enough of a prejudice against makers that people wouldn't accept my suggestion to summon one and let them talk."

"It will matter substantially to how central magical beings can be in the process of space colonization."

"It wasn't that critical back on Earth—how many people are there on this planet?"

"Thirteen billion, but that's with strict population controls since before I was born, when it was nine."

"—wow. Do you, uh, just have lots of children or..."

"A majority of people can cope with two without adverse affects, which is why Voa's policy is two per, extras awarded occasionally for merit. The average people want if they imagine being free of population controls is five. It would be higher if the question also imagined freedom from material scarcity such that they didn't have to worry about providing for them."

Slow blink. "What happens to people who have more when they're not allowed?"

"In Voa, the children are taken and put up for adoption and the offender is sterilized. Both birth control and abortions are available for free."

"...I suppose that works. But, um. Wow. You really need space exploration, huh."

"Yes."

"I could make you a circle for a maker so you can summon one and we can do some investigative conjuration.—oh, I forgot to mention, when you summon a daeva you can agree to a deal with them and then their bindings get loose enough to allow them to fulfil their end of the deal."

"But remain otherwise intact?"

"Yes. And you can only dismiss a daeva before making a deal with them or after you've paid, if you make a deal and then don't pay them the bindings start coming off by themselves one by one."

"What sorts of deals are customary?"

"Move my piano over there and I'll bake you muffins, or restore me the lost writings of this very specific ancient philosopher and I'll tell you about ten books you've never read—makers are hard to pay, they can make whatever, so information about things they can make or things they can't actually conjure like watching a specific musical or sex are sometimes used as payment. ...there's a selection effect going on in that since most people gag their makers the makers who take summons are mostly the ones who don't mind being gagged."

"Why don't they object?"

"...the makers? I expect if you don't gag them they do but most people are too terrified of them to even summon them let alone hear their complaints. And the worlds are not physically connected so there isn't, like, a coherent internet."

"You said the ones who take summons are the ones who don't mind. Why do they not mind," clarifies Avalor.

"Oh, either because they're very altruistic or very bored or because they want to get the things summoning gives them—so it's disproportionately people who want to extract almost-always nonconsensual sex, or who get a kick out of pretending to take a terrified person's soul."

"Do you anticipate it will be difficult to locate makers who will be interested in politer arrangements?"

"I think it might take a few tries to find one but then we can ask them about friends and others who they know of and we can start building lists of friendly makers to be summoned specifically."

"Is there any disadvantage associated with it being known to makers that this planet exists?"