Those are good ways to look at it.  I'd considered the debt idea, but I can't see it fitting well with the game I imagine my friends will be playing - we're a more casual crowd.  The idea of what spirits want could be interesting, although I still feel like the consequences will have to impact them in some meaningful way in order for them to care.  Now that I think of it though, the idea that maybe the wind spirits want to blow free and now they have to walk through gale winds creating another danger of some sort? I'll have to think about it.

On another note, I've been spending a small amount of time experimenting with custom moves and classes, and it would seem this move is poorly designed, based on much of the advice I've seen online - I can't imagine a scenario where you would roll to use this move and not pick the option 'the effect you desire comes to pass'.  Am I missing something? That will always be a gimme, and then you pay a price afterwards regardless of how well you rolled.  If you roll a 7-9 you just give the GM a choice of how to mess with you - a 10 just lets you pick in what way.  If you're not willing to pay consequences of some sort, you wouldn't use the move in the first place, right?

Well, I understand that, and I plan to, but I'm not 100% they will have a good answer for me - this is basically the one thing I just don't get - for everything else, the vagueness of the instructions make sense to me, as it means everyone can create their own worlds with different interpretations depending on whom you play with... I've already had a bit of fun imagining different adventures down the road and different classes that I might create (or how to modify existing ones) down the road when we're more comfortable with the game.  The style of the game really appeals to me, it's just that this line just throws me for a loop honestly.