It might be their first time doing flesh magic, but it's not their first time doing 3D modeling, and while it takes them a few passes, that sure is a fleshy rendition of Beatrix!  Myria mutters something about 'uncanny valley' when she decides they're done.

It looks surprisingly accurate! The form is correct, although the texture and color isn't.

"That looks really good. I didn't expect you to learn this quickly. Have you done sculpting before? Not necessarily with flesh, just...in general."

"In general, yes, something like."

Certu's speaker tower returns a few minutes later.

"Excellent work! You really do seem to have great mana control. I usually reserve this lesson till later, but it seems like you could benefit from it. We'll have to stop after that."

He spawns a book concerning the human integumentary system via opening an orifice in the floor, and sets the book on a small table he created beside Myria. He turns it to a page describing human hair follicles.

"Let's try adding hair to your sculpture. Shaping flesh is the easy part, but to do anything complex, you have to understand what you're doing. If you want to master flesh magic, you'll have to do lots of biology reading. You're not going to be able to see the individual hair follicles you're making unless you have a microscope, but you still need to understand their form and function in order to grow them from flesh via mana control. Volchirr lemhin will only get you so far.

Let's try it without a microscope this time, going only by pure mana control and feel. Volchirr lemhin can be used to accelerate the growth of the hair follicles so that they can produce hair. You can't control the hair directly since it is neither flesh nor blood, but you can manage it by altering the base of the follicle. That's the only part that's alive."

"Ooh, keratin.  Alright, let's see..."

This is going to be kind of complicated!

"How would you go about - speciating is the wrong word but it's also the most right one - inducing the cellular structure to actually be follicular?  I have any thoughts and I'm thinking about how to pursue them, but surely there are ways I'd overlook, that I do not want to overlook."

"The important part is to visualize the follicles in your mind, and then visualize where they're supposed to go. That should work in this case. It's easier if the flesh you're working with supports the structure you're visualizing natively. This is derived from my flesh, so it should be easier. It would be more difficult if you, say, wanted to grow a tentacle on a human. Humans don't natively have tentacles, so you would have to have better mana control and knowledge of biology to do that. In this case, it's more of...telling the flesh to grow into the tissues you want. It is similar to...stem cells, are you familiar with those? They are tissues in the body which are able to morph into any other type of tissue, but of course, they can only turn into tissues that the organism natively supports. Human stem cells can't turn into tentacles without artificial intervention."

He draws a tinier cube of his own, and tries to demonstrate. His tentacles wriggle a few inches away from the cube, and frizzy red hair starts to sprout from it, a centimeter per second.

"I think growing any hair would be a great accomplishment at this level. Controlling the color and texture we can do some other time."

"Yes, I'm aware of stem cells, I'm surprised you didn't pick up on that from my going-on about pluripotence - ...also, that 'can't natively support' is doing a lot of heavy lifting, there.  I wonder how much you could do just by tweaking expression in biological legacy code...to say nothing of - oh, but that's definitely doing additional non-native work, Crispr-CAS9 isn't even...do I know how to make that, I wonder...c'mon, alchemy, this is your field.  Have the - yes!  But there's also the same theoretical process that produced mitochondria and, I believe, chloroplasts, to consider as somewhat viable...anyway.  Not getting distracted.  Hair follicles.  Now how do I arrange the words for this spell...Well.  Probably multiple spells, actually.  One to knock back the biological clock a bit, one to grow the result in the direction of my devising...

"I read somewhere, once, that hair color and follicle density were interrelated, which is just a bit absurd but I cannot yet put the lie to it; probably a function of evolution being a hacker rather than any fundamental causative factor, though, because individual strands of hair have definitive colors.

"Anyway.  I can think about what I'm doing all day; only thing that'll tell me whether I'm right or wrong, though, is actually trying it."

"Hmm."

"Volchirr lemtrith, volchirr lemhin."

She's really getting tired of violating the programming maxim of not repeating herself, but that comes later.

Mend the cells to brand-new condition, and then make them grow, according to - she doesn't have a blueprint.

Frak.  Alright she'll try it live, but she's not quite expecting pushing out the pattern of follicle shapes to work...

And it does not.

"Hm."

"Let's try that again, perhaps..."

"...No, darling, allow me to interject.  You're too focused, on the wrong things.  Don't fret about the chemical and genetic expression.  Hold the concept in your mind, instead.  Volchirr lemhin."

And with Ophelia fucking with her head (quite literally, in fact) so that Myria will get through the process instead of choking and dissipating her work into unproductive lines of worry, Myria does indeed cause the bust to grow silky light-brown hair from freshly grown follicles.  "Your hair's pretty, Beatrix."

"Thank you! This is really good..." She touches the hair on the statue with her right hand, and compares it to the texture of her own hair, which she's feeling with her left hand.

"It's very accurate. I'm impressed." The pink fleshy Beatrix statue is still pink and fleshy, but it now has great hair.

"Great! I noticed that the two of you were helping each other. That's good. That's a big advantage you have. I'll have to end the lesson now, but you're free to play with the flesh statue as much as you want, still. Don't take the statue out of the room, though, or it will start decomposing. We'd rather save it for the next lesson."

The speaker tower sinks into the floor.

"...I am so tempted to see if I can get it to not-decompose outside of this room, out of spite for the petty laws of 'reality' that're getting in my way, but, that's asking for hubris-induced suffering and I'm not going to succeed by going all Sparky; I'm not Agatha Heterodyne.  ...Does literature around here have hubristic mad scientists, archetypally?"

"Not hubristic mad scientists. Not much fiction about those, sadly. Lots and lots of fiction about hubristic mad wizards, though. We tend to prefer trading for nonfiction over fiction books at the library, but we do have some fiction. About a fourth of our collection is. Stories which feature that trope prominently...tend to not be very good. To me, at least. I prefer hubristic but sane characters."

"Well.  To quote the lady herself, sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from SCIENCE!!!," and she pauses - "...Yes, the emphatically pronounced exclamation points are part of the original quote.  I think she's a grander example of the type because the point of her world is that there's not just her doing all sorts of mad wizardry; there's a whole world of Sparks doing Sparky stuff and leaving inscrutable gubbins lying around to be doomsday weapons later.  Also it was very artistic."

"...You'd probably quite like Leareth, but there's no way I can reconstruct his books because I only know he exists through cultural osmosis.  ...Damn, and now I might never know."

She laughs. 

"Now I want to read your world's fiction. Or perhaps your own, if you've written any. I've been working with books my whole life, but I actually haven't published anything. A little ironic, isn't it? And not for lack of time: I'm more than three hundred years old. I might publish a treatise on earth magic – that's the magic I have the most notes of. I suppose writing just isn't for me. The most I've written were papers on magical theory."

She tilts her head off to the side slightly. She had been passing over some of Myria's references, but this one stood out to her.

"In what way is Leareth like me?" Her tone is purely curious, not accusatory. 

"I have written so many abandoned first chapters.  ...I think I might actually be able to pull off dredging entire books-I've-read out of my memory with enough sorts of magic thrown at the problem?  And the brain-computer.  We'll see.  I certainly intend to try, at least!"

"It's not that Leareth is necessarily like you, as much as - you wanted a sane wizard with hubris out the wazoo?  Leareth is the man who wages a 2,000-year campaign to build a god because the other gods suck, and even without the protagonist of that series happening to him, he might've succeeded."

She adjusts her hair.

"Wow, yeah, that is hubristic. Although I personally don't really see hubris as bad. Is it really hubris if you can deliver? The people here certainly haven't, though. I've read about people who tried to become gods – the sources are of varying credibility – but none have succeeded to my knowledge."

"Honestly, 'is it hubris if you can deliver' is a very good question for which my answer is 'I dunno'!  ...Huh, becoming a god is a thing people can do?  Or, rather, try, I suppose?"

"Yes, try. None of them have succeeded to my knowledge, after all. A new god appearing on the scene seems like something that people would take note of quickly. Many of the current gods have a form in the sky. Some people use astronomy and astrology to try to commune with them, but that is not without risk. I've studied how to do it in theory, and know how to use the observatory for that, but I've never done performed a communion. 

Neither Certu or I have much connection with the gods. Virtually all of them oppose at least one other in some form, and we'd rather not get involved in that. The both of us are master spellcasters and have magic weapons in the armory, but in the end we're only two mortals. 

I occasionally pray to the Wizened Void when I hit a roadblock in research or have to puzzle out a difficult conundrum. I worshipped Him back before my time in the library. I tend to pray less these days, though."

"Ooh, yes, do please tell me about the practical theology."

There's a visible change in her face and expression as she switches into 'librarian explaining' mode.

"'Normal' people usually pray to whichever god has domain over what they want to do. If they're farming, they'll pray to the Bountiful Lady for a good harvest. People seeking luck in finding a spouse pray to the Doting Lover that they might find true love. A merchant wanting to make lots of money might pray to the Avarice King. The gods rarely intervene in such mundane matters, but it's good to...pay 'respect' to the god that has domain over what you're going to do, in the same way one might ask for permission before entering someone's house.

For people who are particularly aligned with a god's principles and potentially have something to offer them in return, such as if they're powerful and their service would be significant, the god might present them with boons as well as empower them with various mutations. They also might do this to very devout worshippers.

As for you, I think that the Wizened Void would love to meet you, since you have the ability to cast any magic, and are passionate about magic. In fact...he might have intervened to get you here, if you're really from another world. I haven't heard of any person doing that, but if there's anyone who could do that, it would be the gods."

"Would you mind telling me the known gods, then?  I know there was someone...pink, feminine, and kind, involved, stretched thin as she was, but I'm not sure if that was the only god involved in my reincarnation, or if there was someone else who originally selected me, for example."

She crosses her legs.

"Alright. The gods are usually sorted into the Old Gods and the New Gods. The Old Gods are less interventionist, but when They intervene, it's something big and significant. The New Gods are the reverse. They tend to commune more with their followers and enact minor miracles. I'll describe the Old Gods first. I'll give a quick summary of each. I can get you a theology textbook later.

The Wild Empress has domain over animals and monsters, and She prefers beastmen and dragons and the like. Also humans. She's about surving and overcoming others, but also raising others to grow in strength to succeed you. Her boons and granted mutations evoke animal characteristics. She opposes the Strict Master.

You'd probably hate the Wicked Mother. She's the patron deity of parasites: part of Her tenets is that you ought to take parasites into your body. I think I told you about her earlier. She also favors many tentacled creatures. Her boons and granted mutations are about raping people. Yes, I'm serious. She opposes the Bountiful Lady."

She chuckles a little, and adds, "See, I told you they hate each other. When I say a god opposes another, you should take that as being true in the reverse direction as well."

"Anyway, continuing.

The Strict Master is all about slavery and obedience. To Him, slaves ought to be obedient to their masters, and that masters ought to be strict to their slaves. Very hierarchical. His boons and granted mutations are about causing fear, and power dynamics and bondage.

The Starving Lord has poison, growth and warfare in His domain. He favors plant creatures. He's like the Wild Empress but plant-y. His boons and granted mutations are about growth and bodily resistance, and also being plantlike. He opposes the Corrupt Maid.

The Deep Prophet is like the Wizened Void, but more cruel. He teaches never to do things for free. He favors sea creatures and those with mind-affecting powers. As you can expect, He opposes the Wizened Void. It's funny how both of the gods whose domain is knowledge are associated with the deep sea. His boons and granted powers are water themed, and also give you a portion of His knowledge.

The Avarice King is about selfishness and cannibalism. Many of his followers are cannibals. They say they grow stronger when they eat others, that they acquire a portion of the power of those they eat. I believe that's one of His boons. His granted mutations help you eat others, such as being able to open your mouth very wide to consume someone whole. He opposes the Charity Queen.

The Arrogant Star is concerned about remaining pure and uncorrupted. He and His followers are very smug about it. He's also the patron deity of the Aurum Empire, where they call him First Father. He has his own established church there and everything: the Church of the Golden Eye. His boons give you greatly increased resistance to mundane and magical effects, and his granted mutations concern both cleanliness and resilience."

She takes a moment before continuing.

"On to the New Gods. The Fair Queen is, as the name suggests, fair. Don't lie, don't cheat, don't steal. Oh, and She hates the undead. She has similar boons to the Arrogant Star, who She opposes, although one of Her boons is about being able to interact with ethereal entities as though they were corporeal. She likes elves.

The Corrupt Maid is about being polite and disciplined. Really very maid-like indeed. One of Her boons is fetish sense, where you can see what fetishes someone has if you touch them for a while." She smiles incredulously. "Would love to meet someone with that ability and ask them for fetish statistics, ha. She likes smiles and gazers, and her granted mutations reflect that.

The Doting Lover I've told you about already. He, and to some extent His wife too, is the god of family and marriage, and of self-sacrifice for them if necessary. His boons are love related – I remember that one of them ties the fate of both spouses together. He prefers demons, and grants mutations related to sex.

The Bountiful Lady is the goddess of medicine, growth, and plants. With that kind of domain sharing, you'd think she'd oppose the Starving Lord, but nope! She opposes the Wicked Mother. Maybe that's because the Wicked Mother's animals eat Her plants. Anyway, she's quite pacifist and is an environmentalist. Her boons and granted mutations concern being talented in growing plants, as well as plant-related traits. As you might expect, she favors plant and fungus creatures.

The Curious Oracle is concerned with dreams and sleep. One of Her tenets say to get enough sleep every night. One of Her boons is related to that, where She might visit you in a dream to give advice. She favors cephalopods, fairies, and jellyfish.

The Charity Queen is about being generous and charitable. Not surprising. She emphasizes always being of value to others and helping them out, which may involve sex too, which explains her granted mutations. She loves changelings. Her most famous boon is resurrection. A person who has that will be restored to mortal life if they die, although I understand that there's some sort of cooldown period between resurrections.

The Wizened Void doesn't prefer any creatures. He's concerned with magic and knowledge. You fit his tenets best, I think. He's against hubris, though, and emphasizes the smallness of each individual person compared to the vast cosmos. His famous boon increases someone's mana regeneration so much to the extent that they start to leak it. Oh, to have that mutation..." She sighs.

"That's all of them! I might have missed some things about some of them, so I should really get you that theology book."