Does she have lots of pets at home?

Fifteen. She left them all there because they would probably react badly to moving, and to keep her claim on her land. They'll be fine without her unless someone specifically wants to hurt them.

(She starts on 'What my infancy was like', about her first year, with many paragraphs devoted to the simplest things like bewilderment over what clouds could be and the wonder of seeing a tree try to sprout, with a few conversations with a not-very-fatherly father and a lot of tales of minor misadventures.)

tree877 wants to hear all about the pets.

They get a bit smarter after so much Enkindling - Amentans do too but it's probably hardly measurable, much more noticeable on animals - but they have some difficulty accepting a new place in the world, with intelligence enough to do more than eat and grow and reproduce and die but not enough to compare to her or other people. But she tried to only Enkindle animal servants with a clear purpose and place so they wouldn't be too unhappy.

Seven birds, to watch and listen and report back to her. Four of a species of small spined herbivores, a family, who spread wild plants and eat invasive or overpopulated ones and help keep her territory's flora just so. Two bear-like creatures and a giant sloth, guards and combatants if she ever has to fight. And a rabbit named Forever. Her first Enkindling project, and one she regrets doing badly from inexperience. Forever is not a very happy animal.

Poor Forever, what's wrong with it?

Are they doing before and after IQ tests on her patients?

Presumably they are. They ought to know the 'getting slightly smarter' thing from Seeker.

Forever is smart and aggressive and strong, but it is against a rabbit's nature to kill things. He's good at things he doesn't want to do but which young Bloom thought were cool. He doesn't have a useful purpose beyond being her friend and growing plants. He still does the rabbit equivalent of springing but doesn't want to reproduce since candidates for that are much stupider than him and the baby rabbits would be, too. Such recklessness and thoughtlessness can't be repeated.

Poor Forever. Are there any protections against that sort of thing besides Bloom happening to personally find it objectionable? tree877 guesses not since there is no government.

There is no government except the laws read out by Grand Moots. There is a law forbidding experiments that might have dangerous results without the approval of an expert. Also, Enkindling teachers mostly refuse to teach someone they don't think is ready. She probably seemed readier than she really was, because she's strong in Earth.

Who taught her? What was learning like?

Her father taught her. It was a lot of lectures and then paying close attention while he did it and then some thought experiments and then doing the thing 'at' empty air so he could critique her form.

You can practice on nothing? Doesn't she need to know what she's acting on to do it? Why her father, don't they basically not do families?

The practicing on nothing is more about form and the knowing what she's acting on is more about knowledge. If she had knowledge but not form she'd still fuck it up. Her father doesn't love her but thinks she is a reflection of his greatness and her doing impressive things makes him look better, so he taught her for free.

What are the different ways one fucks up depending on whether form or knowledge is missing?

Is it sad that her father doesn't love her?

It's hard to predict and depends on the specific fuckup for both kinds. The target growing horribly sick or dying, the Draak growing horribly sick and the target dying, adding lots of side-effects you didn't want, creating a malevolent spirit (a Song-construct not attached to any physical thing), madness...

Not really. He loved her some while she was still an egg, it's gone now but that was enough.

tree877 wants to know more about spirits! Are they all malevolent?

No. Plenty are just kind of... Alien. Some are actively seeking to harm anything they can, some just have some kind of natural conflict or don't understand Draak perspectives, like a river spirit causing floods because a bigger river is obviously great, some are benign or helpful. There were a lot of spirits on Oldhome and hardly any on Newhome. She hasn't sensed even one on Amenta. Most spirits are about nature.

Do they all arise from magic gone awry (or possibly intentional magical creation)?

Intentional creation and accidents are one theory. She believes the Onesong creates them, or that some occur naturally, or possibly as a side-effect of Draak existing nearby.

Might some start existing on Amenta after Draak have been visiting long enough?

It's a possibility. She would notice a spirit trying to form if it did that near her. She should probably tell Ruan about this, actually.

"...would you be able to interrupt its formation?" he wants to know.

...Yes...

"- I don't know if that's the ideal response but it seem important to know if it's possible. What would it be likely to do if one finished forming?"

Spirits are very individual. They are fairly intelligent but very - inflexible. They don't really learn. I could certainly talk to it if it was strong enough to cause much trouble, or bully it somewhere uninhabited, or shred it while it's weak if it is evil. If it's any kind of spirit I'm familiar with, one of wind or rain or leaves or a hot spring, it could be convinced into the botanical garden or some patch of wilderness easily enough.

If a new spirit has something to do with elevators or glass or the internet I wouldn't really understand what it wants. Such spirits sound impossible to me, but since you want to consider all possibilities I mention it.

"What would the familiar types do?"