"Yes, though the rules for when it occurs are not fully understood. They are, at least, thankfully, mostly passed on whole or not at all."

"Guess that's better than the other way around!"

What else is in intro biomancy? Are there any living things around to practice on?

Yes. Here is a pair of potted succulents.

Spot the difference, spot the meaning. It's hard to teach this initial step, unlike with motes, one has to come to it on their own. It's a very subtle thing, some describe it like sheets with the wrong thread count, or like skin being too dry, or like the difference between sunrise and sunset.

Huh.

This one is... wide-ruled to that one's college-ruled??

Is it though, or is that just her imagination?

Loril brings her a third, un-Meaninged one to compare with, and says this is one of those things that gets much easier and more detailed with practice.

Bella will "stare" at them all trying to bring it into focus.

There does seem to be a thing. It's... Thingy. It's... Sitting still, possibly? Attached to the plant, which she can also vaguely tentatively feel, but not quite part of it, exactly. The sensation resists translation into more familiar sensory modalities.

Well, she needs to be familiar with her new senses anyway and this is a fine way to practice making fine distinctions.

Loril pokes the plant and does something that makes it... Wiggly. Or, no longer sitting still, at least.

"This meaning tells the plant to open its stomata. The principle effect of this is to increase photosynthetic activity and also the need for water and other nutrients. It is not sufficient to make a plant grow extremely fast by itself, but it's good to make them perk up. It's also a lovely introductory practice exercise."

"Oh huh..." Can she replicate this herself?

She can make the thingy wiggle! And make it stop wiggling too! She cannot replicate the thingy in another one of the succulents.

What if she is very very patient and keeps tryyyyyyyinnnnnng.

This is when Loril steps in to give her advice and show her the mental motions.

The problem is, the meaning isn't stable unless you sort of tie it off. She can put half of it there, and by the time she gets to the other half, it's been 'eaten' by the plant's aliveness.

She demonstrates, telling Bella to pay close attention. You can tie it off by doing - this. Sort of - still working on it, still paying attention to it, actively telling it to hold still, while you do the other half. Almost all meanings are split up into grains like that, long chains of thingness that are simple individually but add up. This one is just two parts. Practical ones range from dozens to hundreds, or for extreme cases thousands.

And then stabilizing the whole thing together is this other unfamiliar motion, but it means that if you've made a mistake anywhere along the line you have to erase the whole thing and start over.

Ooh okay. She writes down shorthand for all the steps, and then - like this?

Not quite. Loril tells her what she's doing wrong on this middle step right here - press it still just hard enough to stay stable - and on the second... Third try she can replicate the thing in another succulent.

Yay!!

Loril slow claps, with a gentle quiet smile on her face that is barely distinguishable from her usual tired expression. This is a remarkable display of enthusiasm, for her.

What else can she do, what's next?

Next is a shaping. Those work better on dead stuff. Since it's not trying to do something that isn't what you're telling it to do, like be alive.

She can try it either with a preserved rodent leg, or a leaf. The leaf is harder, because what you have to do is have a very clear understanding of what, mechanically, on a fairly small scale, you want the thing to do.

She will try the leaf, partly because it is less icky.

There ensues a short plant biology lecture so she can understand how plants move and shape themselves.

Insofar as this is not just what she learned in high school bio, awesome!

She will skip ahead a lot upon comprehending high school bio knowledge.

Once you understand what you're trying to do, on the chemical and cellular level (that much detail is not strictly necessary but is good habit), it's just holding it all in your head and intending at the leaf.

Can she make the leaf... what's simple... roll up?

The leaf rolls up! A bit slowly. But a lot faster than plants normally move unless they're Venus fly traps or something.

"Try setting it to a cycle. A shaping will take imbuement just like motes."